GREENFIELD — Opposing counsels on Friday agreed to a tentative June 6 rape trial date for the Bernardston man who in 2017 pleaded guilty in Greenfield District Court to strangulation, resulting in the taking of a DNA sample that matched that of a suspect in a reported rape 26 years earlier.
Antonio Peter Candello, 52, is in Franklin County Superior Court facing a forcible rape of a child charge stemming from a 1991 incident.
Candello’s attorney, Alfred P. Chamberland, said his client has been incarcerated for three years and cannot reasonably be expected to post any cash bail, never mind the $50,000 bail set for him. Chamberland told Judge John Agostini he plans to formally file motions to reduce bail and to dismiss the charge.
Trial dates had previously been set for February, then March, and then April, but all were postponed for different reasons. Chamberland reportedly fell ill in February, and the March and April dates were postponed because the alleged victim has a relative near death in Alabama. Assistant District Attorney Frederic Bartmon, who is prosecuting this case for the state, said the victim “is utterly unavailable in April.”
Bartmon also said the prosecution has had to locate now-retired detectives and laboratory workers, as well as the now-retired physician who handled the sexual assault case when it allegedly occurred, for testimony at trial.
Agostini got the opposing attorneys to agree on June 6 as a tentative trial date and asked Bartmon to keep the court informed of any new complications.
“We need to have this,” the judge said, “and if we say ‘June 6,’ that’s the date it’s going to be, come hell or high water.”
In October 2021, Candello was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty in Franklin County Superior Court to two counts of witness intimidation, two counts of assault and battery on a family/household member (including a subsequent offense), and single counts of strangulation or suffocation (subsequent offense), and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon. He had been arrested on May 15, 2019, after assaulting and choking his wife before fleeing into the woods, cutting off his court-ordered ankle monitoring bracelet and taking refuge at an abandoned cabin where authorities later found him. He receives 895 days of credit for time spent in custody following his arrest.
As part of the plea agreement, the state dismissed charges of kidnapping, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a family member, attempting to violate an abuse prevention order, violation of an abuse prevention order, and three counts of solicitation to commit murder — the latter stemming from allegations that Candello offered to pay a fellow inmate to kill his wife.
Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.