Austin Altomare's best friend testifies about night of drugs, fighting prior to 2020 Lorain murder

ELYRIA — Austin Altomare, accused of shooting and killing his girlfriend in their apartment on March 26, 2020, pulled his gun on another person before the alleged murder, testimony Thursday revealed. His best friend, Jacob Bosko, testified Thursday about the encounter during Altomare's murder trial in Lorain County Common Pleas Court. An Elyria resident, Bosko testified he and Austin Altomare were best friends. They went to the same elementary school, were at one time co-workers at a haunted house attraction at Midway Mall and frequently hung out and used recreational drugs together. Bosko said he first met Altomare's girlfriend, Cyarah Vince, after she began dating Altomare in 2017. The trio hung out socially numerous times, smoked marijuana and took other recreational drugs together, Bosko testified. Vince was "like a sister," to Bosko, he said. Prosecutors allege that Altomare, now 25, shot and killed Vince, 23, after Altomare chased Bosko out of the couple's apartment after assaulting him with a gun, a chair and his fists. Lorain police officers found Vince slumped on a couch in the upstairs apartment with a fatal gunshot wound to the head after responding to gunshots and a neighbor's 911 call. Several unfired rounds of .40-caliber ammunition and spent shell casings were found throughout the apartment and the gun found unloaded on the ground outside. Altomare was arrested in the driveway, after pointing out his gun on the ground and making statements to police including admissions he had "just shot my wife" and that the night had gotten "weird" after they took drugs. He 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. Altomare had invited Bosko over for dinner, and Bosko drove from his home in Elyria to Altomare and Vince's apartment at 2129 E. 29th St. in Lorain the night of the killing, he testified. The trio had tickets to go to an electronic music festival in Mexico that week, but the COVID-19 pandemic forced the festival to be postponed and later canceled, Bosko testified. He said the dinner plans were one way for them to hang out because their trip didn't happen. Bosko testified that he brought a backpack containing snacks, a small plastic baggie containing the drug MDMA — also known as ecstasy or molly — some marijuana products and some other personal items with him to the get-together. A concealed-carry permit holder, Bosko also had his 9 mm Springfield handgun in a holster on his side. He said he put the holstered firearm in his backpack when he entered the apartment and never handled it the rest of the night. Once inside, Bosko ate dinner — chicken and rice that Vince had cooked, "which was fantastic," he testified — and the three listened to electronic music on YouTube, smoked marijuana and took LSD or "acid." The drugs already were in Altomare and Vince's apartment when Bosko arrived and were provided by the couple, he testified. They each did "five to seven hits" or doses of LSD, which Bosko said usually takes between an hour and 90 minutes to take effect. "I was hesitant to 'trip' (on acid) but was like, more or less 'Yeah,'" when asked if he wanted to take some, Bosko testified. He said the drug causes auditory and visual "effects," "a oneness with God or the universe," and is "a normally enlightening experience." The three also snorted a crushed ecstasy pill that Altomare and Vince provided. That happened about an hour or 90 minutes after they took the LSD, he testified. It was after that, that Altomare left the room and returned with his .40-caliber Glock handgun in his hand. Altomare then began to pace the apartment, in an "agitated" state like he was "trying to work something out" in his head, Bosko testified. Bosko said he was familiar with his friend's gun because he had accompanied Altomare when he bought it in November 2019. Bosko had checked out the gun for quality and to make sure it still had its serial number intact, he testified. "You want to make sure your friends are buying something" legitimate, he testified. Bosko said he wasn't concerned about his own 9 mm, holstered in his backpack next to a recliner in the living room. "I was more concerned why my friend was upset and had a firearm," Bosko testified. Vince and Altomare ended up sitting on the bed in their adjacent bedroom, having a "serious" conversation as Bosko played on his phone. At one point, Vince pushed Altomare while the two were on the bed and appeared "shocked" at something he had said, Bosko testified. Altomare then got up, walked over to where Bosko was sitting and put the muzzle of the handgun behind Bosko's left ear. "'Don't think I won't do it, n***a,'" Bosko said Altomare told him with the gun to Bosko's head. Bosko, who choked up as he recalled the alleged threat, said he was "very confused" and "concerned" at the time. Vince, who still was sitting on the bed, appeared "equally shocked" he testified. Asked if he had taken a firearms safety class to get his own concealed-carry weapons permit, Bosko told Assistant Lorain County Prosecutor Chris Pierre that he had. One of the primary rules of firearms safety is: "Never point a loaded firearm at anything you don't want to destroy," Bosko said, in reply to one of Pierre's questions. Bosko testified that he never reached into the backpack sitting next to him and pulled his own gun. He also denied wrestling with Altomare over Altomare's gun, handling or touching the firearm at all that night. "As silly as it sounds, I wasn't feeling my life was in danger," he said. Altomare took the gun away from Bosko's head and walked away to another part of the apartment where Bosko couldn't see him, Bosko testified. Bosko said he sat, thinking about how to de-escalate the situation, when "five to 10 minutes later, three to four gunshots rang out." "'Did he (Altomare) just fire the f*****g gun in the house?'" Bosko said he asked Vince. "'Go get him,'" Vince told Bosko, according to his testimony. After that, "basically everything drastically changed," Bosko testified. Following the gunshots, the apartment's smoke alarm was going off, the couple's dog was trying to get out the locked kitchen door, electronic music still was blaring and Altomare was in an unknown part of the apartment. Bosko went to silence the smoke alarm, when Altomare passed behind him headed back into the kitchen and told him "'Dude, you have to go.'" "'What the f**k is going on?'" Bosko recalled asking Altomare. Altomare then grabbed a chair and hit Bosko across the left side of the face with it, driving his friend into a corner where Altomare grabbed Bosko by the hair and punched him in the face several more times, Bosko said. Seeing stars and "very surprised I wasn't knocked out," Bosko said he became worried about police showing up to investigate the gunshots and finding illegal substances around the apartment. Altomare then grabbed a butter knife from a kitchen drawer, pointed it a Bosko and told him he had to leave. Vince managed to throw Bosko his keys, he testified, but he fled the apartment without his wallet, backpack, handgun, drugs and the other items he brought. He testified he fled down the stairs out of the apartment, afraid the whole time Altomare might attack him from behind. "It was made clear to me if I tried to get my stuff I would probably be stabbed," he testified. Bosko then got in his car, backed out of the driveway and drove "maybe 10 minutes" before realizing he shouldn't keep driving. A friend picked him up from a parking lot in Lorain and took him back to Elyria, he testified. Bosko testified he learned Vince was dead and Altomare under arrest and charged with her killing the next morning after the mother of Altomare's two children reached out to him on Facebook. Lorain police were soon contacting Bosko, too, and detectives questioned him the following day while also taking his DNA and asking him what had happened the night before. Asked by Pierre why he was so quick to cooperate with Lorain police investigators, Bosko told Pierre it was "because I knew I didn't have anything to hide and hadn't done anything." Bosko has not received immunity in exchange for his testimony, he told defense attorney Anthony Nici during cross-examination. He also denied being "envious" of Altomare and Vince and their relationship, in response to a question posed by Nici. "That's their relationship, not mine," Bosko testified. Testimony continues today in Judge Christopher Rothgery's courtroom. Contact Dave O'Brien at (440) 329-7129 or dobrien@chroniclet.com. Follow him @daveobrienCT on Twitter.