Man serving time for stealing from father seeking new trial

LACONIA — A former Center Harbor resident who is serving time in prison for stealing money belonging to his father and then using the funds for his own benefit – including aircraft purchases – is requesting a new trial.

Keith C. Fitzgerald, 54, is currently serving a 10- to 30-year sentence after being convicted on March 29, 2017, in Belknap Superior Court to multiple counts of theft by unauthorized taking.

Fitzgerald’s new lawyer, Michael Ramsdell, asked Superior Court Judge Larry Smukler last Friday to grant his client a new trial on the grounds that the lawyer who represented Fitzgerald at trial failed to give him the kind of effective legal defense guaranteed by the Constitution.

Fitzgerald was indicted on five counts of theft by unauthorized taking, charging that he transferred funds out of joint accounts he had with his father, Clifford L. Fitzgerald Jr., and then placed the money in his own personal accounts.

These transfers occurred in summer of 2010 when the elder Fitzgerald was in failing health due to cancer, and had given his power of attorney to his son, according to court records. The father died soon afterward, in September 2010.

According to a plea offer made in January 2016 by attorney Jesse O’Neill – an assistant attorney general in the AG’s Financial Fraud Unit – Keith Fitzgerald allegedly used the money for:

• The purchase a Maule aircraft in June 2010, which he then sold the following February.

• The unsuccessful attempt to purchase a Beechcraft Baron plane around July 12, 2010.

• The successful purchase of a Beechcraft Baron around July 18, 2010, which he then sold in November 2010.

• The use of $29,306 of his father’s money to pay down the balance on one of the younger Fitzgerald’s credit card accounts.

Under the plea offer, which is included in court records, in return for Keith Fitzgerald’s guilty pleas, he would be sentenced on one count to five to 12 years in prison and pay $409,980 in restitution to the estate of Clifford L. Fitzgerald Jr. On the remaining four counts Keith Fitzgerald would receive four concurrent suspended sentences of five to 12 years, which would take effect upon his release from his prison sentence.

The plea offer also stated the prosecution intended to introduce evidence “obtained from two 2009 bankruptcy cases and (the younger Fitzgerald’s) 2008 divorce case and the 2011 probate case brought by the Estate of Clifford L. Fitzgerald Jr.”

The case ultimately went to trail in March 2017.

In his motion to grant Fitzgerald a new trial, Ramsdell argues that Fitzgerald’s earlier attorney, Robert Hunt, failed to challenge the indictments, including the sentencing enhancement that subjected Fitzgerald to an extended term of imprisonment. The filing also claims that Hunt failed to to advise Fitzgerald adequately about testifying in his own defense, and then failed to adequately prepare him prior to Fitzgerald taking the witness stand.

Fitzgerald appealed his conviction to the state Supreme Court six months after he was convicted, but the high court upheld the conviction in its ruling of June 2018.

Fitzgerald appealed the conviction on the grounds that the trial court incorrectly added sentence enhancement and instructed the jury that he was charged with intending to harm an elderly and impaired person; that Fitzgerald’s attorney failed to challenge the multiple indictments which “violated his protection against double jeopardy”; that the judge allowed hearsay testimony; and that there was insufficient evidence to support the charges.