Second home owner testifies Sapry holed up in his house before arrest

LACONIA — A Laconia homeowner testified about how he found Hassan Sapry in his house on the afternoon of April 26, 2019, not long before he was arrested for the murder of Wilfred Guzman Sr.

Kenneth Hamel testified Tuesday how he had driven up from Massachusetts to check on a second home he owned at 68 Edgewater Ave. after hearing news reports that police had been searching the neighborhood for a suspect in Guzman’s death the week before.

Under questioning by prosecutor Jeffery Strelzin, Hamel said as he walked around the outside of the house he noticed that one of the window screens was ripped. When he went inside he walked around the first floor and he saw Sapry standing in the opening to a spare bedroom.

“I asked him what he was doing in my house and told him he had to leave,” Hamel said.

Asked by Strelzin what Sapry said in reply to Hamel’s question of what he was in the residence, Hamel said that Sapry told him, “Nothing.”

Hamel said he “came right up to Sapry” when he told him to leave, and that Sapry then immediately left the house without incident.

“He was very subdued,” Hamel said of Sapry’s demeanor.

Hamel was one of six witnesses to test in Sapry’s murder-insanity trial taking place in Belknap Superior Court.

Sapry is charged with both first- and second-degree murder in the death of 57-year-old Guzman on April 18, 2019, in Guzman’s apartment at 57 Blueberry Lane. Sapry is also charged with attempted credit card fraud, theft, criminal trespass, and falsifying physical evidence.

Sapry, 24, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

After Sapry left Hamel’s residence, the homeowner said he called 9-1-1 which eventually put him through to Laconia Police, then Sgt. Benjamin Black.

Black testified that he met Hamel at the house and shortly afterward was notified that Sapry was at his parent’s residence at 411 Pleasant St., two minutes away from Hamel’s house.

State Police Sgt. Nicholas Levesque, a member of the State Police SWAT team, testified team members surrounded the Sapry residence and, using a loudspeaker, ordered Sapry to surrender. Moments later Sapry walked out through a garage door with his hands up and was immediately placed in custody.

Levesque described Sapry as cooperative.

Earlier Tuesday, the 16 jurors heard testimony from State Police officers who were involved in the investigation of Guzman’s death in the days prior to Sapry’s arrest. The arrest occurred eight days after Guzman’s body was found by Laconia Police who had gone to the Blueberry Lane apartment to check on the victim's welfare, at the request of Guzman’s son who had arrived for a pre-arranged visit and was unable to contact his father.

State Police Detective Sgt. Matthew Amatucci, the lead investigator in the case, said phone records led them to identify Sapry as a suspect. Police then obtained a search warrant for the Sapry family residence.

When investigators conducted the search on April 23, they found, in a plastic bag stashed in Sapry’s bedroom closet, a pair of sweatpants, a T-shirt, a set of underwear, a zippered jacket, a pair of socks, and a pair of gloves, State Trooper Christopher Elphick told the court. All the items had what appeared to be blood stains on them, he said. The gloves had several cuts on the fingers, Elphick added.

They also found Sapry’s PlayStation console, as well as wallets, credit cards and reward cards with Guzman’s name on them, as well as Guzman’s passport, his Social Security card, and driver’s license.

Based on the results of the search, police obtained a warrant to arrest Sapry on a charge of second-degree murder.

In cross-examining the witnesses the defense attempted to point out how Guzman’s homicide was highly unusual and haphazard, with no evidence of forethought.

During his cross-examining of Elphick, defense co-counsel Wade Harwood noted that Sapry made no attempt to destroy or hide incriminating evidence in the five days between Guzman’s death and the search of his family’s home.

Amatucci said under cross examination by lead defense attorney Mark Sisti there was no evidence that Sapry had tried to used any of Guzman’s credit cards in order to flee the area, either to buy plane, train, or bus tickets, or rent a room at a hotel, or do anything else in an attempt to get away.

“I don’t think he had a plan,” Amatucci said.

Amatucci did say that using billing information on Guzman’s stolen credit cards and Sapry’s PlayStation account, police were able to learn that two of the cards were used in an attempt to buy video game merchandise on Sapry’s PlayStation account. He said those attempted purchases occurred between 10:22 and 10:28 a.m. on April 19, the day after authorities say Guzman was killed.