State rests case in Sapry murder-insanity trial

LACONIA — State of New Hampshire prosecutors rested their case against Hassan Sapry on Friday afternoon. He’ll have his opportunity to make his defense next week, beginning Tuesday morning. 

Sapry, 27, is charged with nine counts including first- and second-degree murder in the 2019 death of Wilfred Guzman Sr. at his Blueberry Lane apartment. Prosecutors Jeffery Strelzin and Alexander Kellermann represent the interest of the State. 

Mark Sisti and Amy Ashworth of Sisti Law Offices are tasked with defending Sapry, who prosecutors say committed the brutal premeditated murder of Guzman Sr. in reaction to perceived or actual slights related to his religious and ethnic identity — Sapry is from Iraq.

The jury will decide if Sapry is guilty of the crimes he’s charged with, and they’ll also decide if he was not in his right mind at the time. Sapry is utilizing the not guilty by reason of insanity defense, which he’s entitled to under New Hampshire state law, and must prove to the jury by clear and convincing evidence that it’s highly likely he was mentally ill or suffering a mental defect at the time the alleged crimes occurred, and that those crimes were the result of the mental illness or defect.

“The case now shifts to the defendant to present his evidence,” Superior Court Justice Elizabeth Leonard said just before 3 p.m. Friday. 

The state has no burden to disprove Sapry’s insanity plea, an affirmative defense. 

Internet search history

On Friday, in the hours preceding the conclusion of the state’s argument, State Police Sgt. Kelly LaPointe testified that, in the days before and after the death of Guzman Sr., Sapry used his cellphone to search for information pertaining to breaking into a residence and stealing money from another person’s credit card.

He also apparently looked for information regarding the timeline of healing after suffering serious hand injuries, and directions to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, where prosecutors say he went for a follow up to a previous visit to New London Hospital in the immediate aftermath of Guzman Sr.'s death. Sapry injured his hand badly in the altercation. 

LaPointe, one of two officers who interviewed Sapry immediately after his arrest in 2019, told jurors she used hardware and software to access his phone and all data contained within, including its internet search history.

Among the queries searched on the phone before Guzman Sr.’s death were “ways to withdraw money from card,” “secretly take money from a card,” “transfer money from card to Paypal” and other searches including “how to remove window screen quietly,” “how to break a window quietly” and “tools to break windows.”

Those searches were made on April 14 and 15, 2019, about three days before Sapry allegedly murdered Guzman Sr. in the early morning hours of April 18.

After Guzman Sr.’s death, Sapry apparently used the internet to search items including “can emergency room stitch you,” “New London hospital emergency room,” “how to secretly take money from a card,” “get money back from PSN wallet” and “Dartmouth Hitchcock address.”

“He’s researching the length of his injury,” LaPointe told jurors, referring to probable recovery time for a severe thumb tendon injury.

But Sisti, while conducting cross-examination of LaPointe’s testimony, revealed nothing in Sapry’s search history indicated any violent intentions, nor any ill will held toward Guzman Sr. or anybody else, before Guzman Sr.'s death.

There were also no broken windows at Guzman Sr.’s residence, nor were any window screens damaged.

“The 14th and the 15th would’ve been about the time that Mr. Sapry said he had been thinking about killing Mr. Guzman,” LaPointe countered, though Sisti insisted it amounted to speculation. 

Autopsy details

Earlier on Friday, Dr. Christine James, a forensic pathologist and professor at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, testified Guzman Sr. suffered over 140 wounds, the most she’d ever seen during an autopsy in her career. 

His cause of death was blunt- and sharp-force trauma and exsanguination, or bleeding to death, and the manner was homicide.

On Friday morning, prosecutors finished playing a recording of an interview conducted by State Police Lt. Steve McAuley and LaPointe at the Laconia Police Department immediately after Sapry’s arrest on April 26, 2019.

“I’ve been having these thoughts for years,” Sapry told investigators at the time. “I went through two wars as a child.”

Sapry told McAuley and LaPointe he’d been having “awful” dreams and thoughts about killing. They’d had a discussion the previous year, when Guzman Sr. made comments regarding religion that deeply offended Sapry, and he’d decided to kill Guzman Sr. just a few days before his death, and Sapry said he felt an emotional release after he’d done it. 

“The last couple of days, I just couldn’t get it off my head,” he said. 

But Sapry also told investigators that he loved Guzman Sr., that Guzman Sr. was a great friend and a great man and he thought visiting him — as he usually did, every other month or so — would help him rid the thoughts from his head.

And apparently it did, for a while. Sapry told investigators they watched television and discussed history for nearly two hours in Guzman Sr.’s living room before moving to the kitchen to have a snack. At some point in the kitchen, Sapry saw a kitchen knife with three rivets on the handle, couldn’t control himself any longer, and attacked Guzman Sr. for 10 to 12 minutes, by his recollection. 

“He’s a good guy,” Sapry told investigators. “I love him, I love him dearly.”