ANSONIA – Day five of the people versus Jose Morales began Friday with testimony about a 911 call from Morales’ cell phone to city police just before 2 a.m. Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019.
Morales is charged with murdering Christine Holloway inside her home on Myrtle Avenue around that date. Holloway was last seen Nov. 29, 2019. She was found beaten to death inside her residence Dec. 2, 2019.
Morales is also charged with tampering with evidence.
Holloway was the mother of Morales’ daughter, Vanessa, who has not been seen since Nov. 29, 2019. She was a year old at the time she went missing.
The state’s first witness on April 11 was Ansonia Police Officer Jacqueline Troesser. She was working the dispatch center in the department starting at 11 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30 and into the morning of Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019.
At about 2 a.m. Dec. 1, Troesser answered a 911 call from a cell phone later identified as Morales’ number. However, the testimony offered Friday did not definitively identify Morales as the caller.
The call could not be connected to a specific address, because it was a cell phone call.
Troesser testified that the phone number appeared to be tied to a cell tower on S. Cliff Street.
“There was a male voice on the other line that stated three different times ‘Myrtle Avenue,’” Troesser said.
She said the caller sounded like he was slurring.
The 911 call was played for the jury to hear.
A male voice on the recording could be heard saying “911. Myrtle Avenue. Myrtle Avenue. Myrtle Avenue. Huh? Huh?”
Under questioning from prosecutor Howard Stein, Troesser said she did not hear any signs of fighting or violence.
“The male voice kind of stopped and then I heard a female voice in the background that stated something as ‘Hang up, stop, who are you talking to?’” Troesser said.
Troesser tried to get the man to give a numbered address, but he wouldn’t. He hung up.
Troesser called back twice with no answer, so she dispatched Officer Mark Clifford to check out a 911 hang up call in the Myrtle Avenue area.
Clifford, now a detective, was the state’s second witness to take the stand April 11.
He testified that he was on Main Street when Troesser radioed him with the info. He drove about a half mile to Myrtle Avenue, entering the road from Judson Place. Clifford said his driver and passenger side windows were down so that he could listen. He had both “take down” and “alley” lights on from the front and sides of the car to illuminate the street and yards on either side of his patrol car.
Clifford said he slowly drove the length of Myrtle Avenue, which he estimates was a half mile, and then back again. He heard no commotion, and saw no people or moving vehicles. Clifford said he was on Myrtle Avenue from 2:02 a.m. until clearing the call at 2:04 a.m. Dec. 1.
The third witness called by the prosecution Friday was Patrick Rowley.
Rowley’s aunt lived next to Holloway’s apartment at 6 1/2 Myrtle Ave. He was at his aunt’s house with his now wife and a cousin on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2019.
The trio was there to move a freezer from a garage and into his aunt’s second floor. Rowley said they were there from about 2 p.m. until about 2:45 p.m.
As they were walking to a vehicle to leave, Rowley testified that he saw a man standing next to a garage at 6 ½ Myrtle Ave.
It struck him as weird.
“It was (a) very windy, cold day,” Rowley testified under questioning from the prosecutor. “I think it was snowing or raining. It was just odd that someone was standing there on a cell phone. It just didn’t seem right.”
He said the man was wearing a hoodie.
Rowley left, but called police to tell them about the stranger after news emerged that Holloway had been killed.
Ansonia detectives came to Rowley’s residence Dec. 4, 2019 with photographs. He picked Morales out of the photos, saying he was 90 percent sure Morales was the stranger he saw on the property.
Rowley then positively identified Morales in court, by pointing to him and describing his shirt.
The fourth witness called by the state Friday was Christopher Picariello. He and his wife own 6 ½ Myrtle Ave.
Holloway was Picariello’s tenant.
Picariello testified about the three-bay garage at the half-acre property, which sat under the apartment where Holloway lived. Picariello owns Valley Motor Sports, a motorcycle shop in Ansonia since 1995. Picariello said he uses the Myrtle Avenue garage as a workshop.
Under questioning from Stein, Picariello testified that he was working with power tools in the garage the weekend after Thanksgiving in 2019 (Friday, Nov. 29, Saturday, Nov. 30, and Sunday, Sunday, Dec. 1).
His mother joined him in the garage workshop on Sunday, Dec. 1. Picariello said he was there from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. At some point he heard noise coming from the apartment above him. It was loud enough to be noticed while he was using power tools.
“I was using the saw and I heard what sounded like movement of furniture upstairs, and it was enough noise to have me stop what I was doing and conversate with my mother, who was also there with me, and ask ‘What is going on upstairs?’” Picariello said.
Picariello’s mother, Laurie Picariello, was the state’s fifth witness. She said she heard three loud bangs while she was with her son in the workshop/garage.
Under questioning by Morales’ attorney Edward Gavin, both Christopher and Laurie said that although the sounds were unusual, it did not concern them enough to go upstairs. They confirmed they heard no fighting or screaming.
Gavin also pursued a line of questioning that pointed out Christopher Picariello got dates wrong when first interviewed by Ansonia police.
Holloway had lived in his property for about 1.5 years before she was killed. He had rarely encountered her, and had never been in the apartment, saying his wife handled things like collecting rent.
The sixth witness on Friday was Ansonia Police Detective Jonathan Troesser. He testified about how police had watched thousands of hours of video surveillance footage and eventually began to track the movement of two vehicles – Morales’ Nissan Sentra and Holloway’s Ford Focus.
The jury was shown a 16-minute long video with footage from residential and commercial surveillance cameras from Cottage Street, Mott Street, Elm Street, Main Street (all in Ansonia), Division Street in Derby, and Derby Avenue in Derby.
Police believe Morales killed Holloway, then dumped bloody evidence into a clothes donation bin across from the Catholic War Veterans building on Derby Avenue.
The jury did see fairly extensive video footage of a Nissan Sentra thought to be Morales’ in the area of Myrtle Avenue on Dec. 1 and Dec. 2, and especially at the Shell gas station at 696 Main St.
Morales can be seen parking in the fire zone in front of the store, and then going inside the store to make purchases. The footage is from 6:18 a.m Dec. 1, 2019.
A car matching the description of Morales’ – sunroof, loud, low hanging muffler, no front plate – can also be seen on the footage heading from Ansonia and into Derby on Derby Avenue, toward the location of the donation bin, and then coming back.
Gavin pointed out that there’s no video surveillance of Morales at the bin on Derby Avenue.
Court will resume Monday, April 14 with jurors reporting to Milford Superior Court at 9:30 a.m.
The state is expected to call witnesses Monday, Tuesday and possibly Wednesday. Once the state rests, the defense has the opportunity to call their own witnesses.
Judge Shari E. Murphy said it’s not known yet whether the defense will call witnesses. Before adjourning, she advised jurors not to read about the case on social or traditional media, nor to talk about the case over the weekend.
“Please avoid any publicity about this case,” she said.
Vanessa Morales, now six years old, remains missing. The investigation into her disappearance is ongoing. Morales has not been charged in connection to that case.
There is a court order limiting mention of that open investigation during this trial.
The National Center For Missing & Exploited Children released an age-progressed photo of Vanessa:
A $10,000 reward has been offered for information that leads to finding her. Anyone with information on the whereabouts of Vanessa should call the Ansonia Police Department at 203 ‑735‑1885.
