Phone calls or the lack thereof made by Christopher Porco to his parents the morning of Nov. 15, 2004 could be the new information soon to come forward in Christopher Porco’s murder trial.
Porco has been charged with murder and attempted murder for the ax attacks that killed his father, Peter Porco, and left his mother, Joan Porco, severely injured, inside their 36 Brockley Drive home in Delmar in November 2004.
Prosecutors believe Porco drove from the University of Rochester late Sunday night, Nov. 14, 2004 to Delmar in Albany County to attack his parents inside the master bedroom as they slept. Authorities believe Porco left Brockley Drive close to 5 a.m. on Monday, Nov. 15, and drove back to Rochester in the early morning hours to get back to his dorm, Munro Hall.
Witnesses in the Porco murder trial including Sarah Fischer, Porco’s former girlfriend, and Jason Novak, a University of Rochester senior, both testified the defendant was worried about his parents on Nov. 15, 2004, the day after the crime.
According to many of Porco’s friends who testified on Monday, July 17, he tried to make several calls to his mother and father at the Brockley Drive home and on their personal cell phones and there was no answer.
He said he was worried about his parents because he was trying to call them and could not get in touch with them from Sunday afternoon until Monday afternoon, said Novak.
Gregory Whiteside, another friend of Porco’s at the University of Rochester in 2004, said the defendant was `fairly fatigued and somewhat distressed` on Monday, Nov. 15, because he could not reach his parents.
`At one point, he mentioned he had difficulty reaching his parents on their cell phones and he was quite concerned because it was unusual,` said Whiteside.
Last week, Fischer testified that on Nov. 15, 2004, Porco sent her an instant message from his computer stating that he could not reach his parents.
`He said he had not been able to contact his parents all morning and that he was nervous,` Fischer said.
Chief Prosecutor Michael McDermott said employees from Verizon and Sprint phone companies will be called to testify in the next several days to verify the result of any phone calls made by Christopher Porco to his parents’ cell phones or to 36 Brockley Drive.
McDermott told The Spotlight there is no evidence gathered, nor any information obtained that Christopher Porco made any phone calls to his parents the day before or the morning after the crime. Someone had cut the phone lines at 36 Brockley Drive at 4:54 a.m. the day of the crime.
When Christopher Porco finally got word on Monday afternoon, Nov. 15, around 3 p.m. that his father had been murdered and his mother wounded, his reaction, according to Novak, was `relatively calm.`
`There was no panic in his voice,` Novak said. `When he hung up the phone, he said ‘my parents are (expletive) dead,’ and then he walked past us,` said Novak.
McDermott was asked if the jury will have a hard time deciphering the prosecution’s case with so much circumstantial evidence that is being heard and no rock solid physical evidence connecting Porco to the crimes.
`My concern with the jury is that they are all taking notes on everyone’s testimony, and it will be our job to bring it all together in the end,` McDermott said.
Several members of the jury bring notepads into the courtroom and take several notes during the daily proceedings.
The defense counsel, Terence Kindlon and Laurie Shanks, and Judge Jeffrey Berry have made it clear since the beginning of the trial that the burden of proof is on the prosecution, and does not rest with Christopher Porco.
After a year of police investigation there is little if any evidence provided by authorities that physically links Christopher Porco to the 36 Brockley Drive crime scene. The evidence gathered and testimony offered so far ranges from toll collectors stating they saw a yellow Jeep Wrangler going through the tolls on Nov. 14 and 15, 2004 to a police officer and several paramedics stating that Joan Porco nodded yes to a question as to whether her assailant was her son Christopher the morning after the crime.
Joan Porco has no recollection of the attacks since, and has publicly professed her son’s innocence.
“