March 2020 Lorain murder detailed during first day of trial

ELYRIA — Jurors heard testimony Tuesday from the first witnesses on the scene of a March 2020 killing in Lorain, as well as the mother of the alleged victim as Austin Altomare's murder trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court entered its first day. Altomare, 25, is accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend, Cyarah Vince, inside the East 29th Street apartment they shared on March 26, 2020. Altomare has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, involuntary manslaughter, felonious assault, having weapons under disability, possession of drugs, using weapons while intoxicated and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is being held in Lorain County Jail on $1 million bond. A jury of nine women and four men, one of whom will be named an alternate juror, is considering the case. Testimony began in Judge Christopher Rothgery's courtroom Tuesday. Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Chris Pierre told the jury that Altomare told Jamie Ball, the first Lorain police officer who arrived on the scene, that he had just shot Vince. Altomare also pointed to his feet where the alleged murder weapon, a .40-caliber Glock 23 semi-automatic handgun, lay unloaded at his feet with an empty magazine and a single unspent round nearby. Officers found Vince, 23, sitting on the couch in the upstairs apartment at 2129 E. 29th St. with a single gunshot wound to the head. LifeCare transported her to a hospital but she did not survive the wound. It was Altomare's gun that was linked to the murder, and his DNA was on the weapon, Pierre told the jury. Altomare also had gunshot residue on his hands. "This isn't a 'whodunit,'" Pierre said. Altomare and Vince, who had been dating since 2017, were visited by their friend Jacob Bosko that night. The trio apparently took drugs including LSD, or "acid," during the evening, according to prosecutors. Defense attorney Anthony Nici told the jury his client doesn't remember the night of the shooting, doesn't remember meeting his attorney or being taken to Lorain Municipal Court for a preliminary hearing the following morning. "To this day, my client does not remember his encounter with Officer Ball," Nici said. Nici said evidence would show that Altomare was "dosed" or given recreational drugs that had been adulterated, resulting in a "memory gap" for the time of the shooting. "It was horrific that a young lady was killed," he told the jury. "More horrific? The investigation that took place" by Lorain police, Nici said. He said some evidence was overlooked by investigators who collected it only after it was turned over to them by members of the Altomare and Vince families once the alleged crime scene had been released to them. Nici also insinuated that Bosko was more involved in the shooting than he admitted to police and was not properly investigated by detectives following Vince's death after fighting with Altomare inside the apartment that night. "His various statements don't make sense," Nici said. "The reality is, there were three people in that apartment. One is deceased and we don't know how and when Cyarah Vince was actually killed. ... I don't know and (Altomare) does not know how she was actually shot. ... I don't know if we will ever know who shot Cyarah Vince or had the gun in their hand when she was killed." Witnesses testify Cyarah's mother, Tamara Vince, testified Tuesday that she talked to her daughter almost every day, and sometimes two or three times a day. Sometimes choking back tears on the stand, Tamara Vince testified her daughter and Altomare had a "rocky relationship," and that Altomare would get jealous when Tamara Vince would travel to Lorain to visit from her home on the west coast. Altomare "was very controlling," Tamara Vince testified. She also testified that after finding out over the phone that her daughter had been murdered and Altomare arrested and charged, she traveled to Lorain County and began the process of clearing Cyarah's belongings out of the apartment. During one trip, Tamara Vince testified, she found what appeared to be a bullet fragment on the stairs leading up into the apartment. She turned it over to Lorain police, she testified, along with a bag of unspent bullets she found inside the apartment. Tamara Vince testified she knew her daughter smoked marijuana and that Cyarah had had a heroin addiction for a time. Ball testified that Altomare, shirtless and shoeless and standing out in the rain on a cold March night, told them he shot his girlfriend. "'I just murdered my wife, just arrest me,'" Ball testified Altomare told him. "'I just shot my wife.'" Altomare was "eerily calm" and "controlled," but "talking a lot." Altomare sobbed when prosecutors put crime scene photos showing Cyarah Vince's lifeless body up on a large monitor in the courtroom. Most of Vince's family and supporters left the courtroom before the photos were shown. A downstairs neighbor, Inez Jones, testified that she heard "tussling" and a "whole lot of banging" coming from the apartment above hers shortly before Altomare opened her side door without knocking or asking and asked her to call 911. She testified she "hollered" at him to get out of her house before dialing 911. Ball arrived and Jones watched from her window as he took Altomare into custody, she testified. Testimony resumes at 1 p.m. today. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him at @daveobrienCT on Twitter.