Convicted murderer’s lawyer explains defense tactics of ’93

WILKES-BARRE – A convicted murderer’s former defense attorney testified Thursday that intoxication wasn’t the reason his former client molested and killed his 3-year-old niece.

Gino Bartolai, who represented Michael Bardo at his January 1993 trial, testified Bardo told him he had been out drinking the night he molested and killed his 3-year-old niece, Joelle Donovan, had a few beers at a Hanover Township bar and only felt buzzed when he got home.

The testimony came in the third day of a Post-Conviction Relief Act hearing, where Bardo’s current attorneys said he should be granted a new trial and sentencing.

Bardo’s current attorneys, Victor Abreu, David Osborne and James Moreno, say the attorneys that represented Bardo at trial were ineffective in that they failed to present evidence that Bardo suffered from six mental disorders and had an alcohol dependency since age 11.

The attorneys say Bardo, 40, was too intoxicated that night and could not appreciate what happened.

“You get drunk and kill someone. I can’t see that, I’m sorry,” Bartolai said.

Bardo strangled the girl and then dumped her body, wrapped in a garbage bag, into the Solomon Creek in South Wilkes-Barre.

Bartolai said he felt he had presented evidence at Bardo’s trial and penalty phase that would have been beneficial to Bardo’s defense. A jury found him guilty of first-degree murder at the trial and decided during the penalty phase he should be put to death.

Bartolai said he and his co-counsel, attorneys Bill Ruzzo and Joseph Yeager, presented evidence including: Bardo’s Children and Youth files; school records; mental health facility records, and testimony from Bardo and his mother.

The attorneys said Bartolai and his co-counsel should have used hospital records that indicate Bardo suffered a broken leg and bruised arm due to incidents stemming from when he was intoxicated at the age of 16.

Bartolai said he didn’t think that evidence was relevant because he felt he and his fellow attorneys fully demonstrated Bardo abused alcohol beginning at a young age.

Bardo’s attorneys also said his previous counsel failed to have an expert exam him thoroughly and diagnose him with pedophilia and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Bartolai testified one local psychologist couldn’t help Bardo’s defense and that another only diagnosed him with personality disorders including anti-social behavior.

Bardo’s attorneys argued Bardo committed the heinous crime because of the disorders, and in court papers filed in June 2008 argued that Bardo is entitled to a new trial and sentencing because he originally was tried and sentenced in violation of his rights.