Judge rules defense will have last word in Sapry murder-insanity trial

LACONIA — Hassan Sapry's defense will get the last word during his murder-insanity trial, a judge has ruled.

Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Leonard ruled Monday that Sapry’s attorney will be able to give the final closing argument on why the jury should find Sapry insane and so, innocent of the murder of Wilfred Guzman in 2019.

The ruling represented a reversal from a decision the judge handed down 1 1/2 weeks before.

Leonard issued the ruling after hearing arguments in Belknap Superior Court from both defense and prosecution attorneys on Friday.

Earlier last month, Sapry’s attorneys asked the judge to allow for a three-part closing argument in a unified trial, or else to permit a bifurcated trial in which the first part of the trial would deal with the facts of the case, and the second part would deal solely with the issue of Sapry’s mental state.

Leonard denied both requests in a ruling issued July 20.

But Sapry’s attorneys then asked the judge to reconsider her decision, prompting her to schedule last Friday’s hearing.

During that hearing Sapry’s lead defense attorney Mark Sisti said that if the judge were to allow a three part closing argument — defense’s arguments on the facts of the case, then the prosecution’s arguments on all elements of the case, and finally the defense’s arguments regarding Sapry’s insanity — then Sapry would withdraw his request for a bifurcated trial.

While stating that she had not overlooked or misunderstood the arguments made in the defense’s initial motions and the prosecution's objections, Leonard on Monday wrote the “court has reconsidered its July 22 order and is granting ... [that] the defendant will be allowed to give his closing last argument on the limited issue of insanity.

“In light of this ruling,” Leonard continued, it is understood, “that the defendant will no longer be requesting a bifurcated trial.”

The judge has allotted five days for jury selection which is set to begin Monday, Aug. 8. The trial is scheduled to get underway on Monday, Aug. 15.

Sapry, now 24, is facing charges of both first-degree and second-degree murder, along with charges of falsifying physical evidence, theft by unauthorized taking, and four counts of credit card fraud.

His attorneys have argued in court filings that Sapry was insane at the time of Guzman’s death due to the emotional trauma he suffered after seeing horrors as a child growing up in Iraq.

Both the defense’s and prosecution’s psychiatrists have concluded that Sapry suffers from prolonged serious mental illness, but disagree on whether that mental illness was the direct cause of the actions that resulted in Guzman’s death.