YORK — A judge granted bond Thursday for a woman accused of killing her husband last month, after 12 character witnesses testified on her behalf and her lawyer asserted that she acted in self-defense against an abusive husband who raped and threatened to kill her.
York Juvenile and Domestic Relations Judge Wade Bowie set bail at $150,000 for Lynn J. Fogarty, 32, charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of Giancarlo Di Fazio, in their Burgundy Road home Sept. 25.
Bowie made the ruling after Fogarty’s family, friends and co-workers — including a Catholic nun who heads Walsingham Academy — raved about her excellence in school and work and kindness for others. The law’s presumption against a bond in a murder case, Bowie said, was overcome by Fogarty’s “ties to the community” and lack of criminal history “of any kind.”
The judge ordered her to be confined at her mother’s Williamsburg home, saying she can’t leave except for certain appointments and her job as an employment specialist at Yorktown Naval Weapons Station. But Commonwealth’s Attorney Ben Hahn said he’d appeal Bowie’s decision to Circuit Court, with Fogarty to remain jailed in the meantime.
The hearing reflected sharply divergent views of the case: While Hahn said Fogarty murdered her husband, Fogarty’s lawyer, Andrew Sacks, contended that she acted to save her own life.
Fogarty called York County’s 911 twice that Sunday. The first call, at 2:58 p.m., was unintelligible. In the second, at 3:03 p.m., Fogarty said her husband “tried to kill” her. “He is dying,” she told a dispatcher. “I thought the safety was on. … I was in grave danger.”
Di Fazio was found in an upstairs bathroom, shot once in the chest by a .45-caliber handgun at point blank range, Hahn said. Fogarty told deputies that Di Fazio, 32, “has been abusive our entire marriage,” and that “he threatened to kill me every day” and “cut off my breathing.”
But Hahn, for his part, said the crime scene points to murder.
The prosecutor said Di Fazio was found naked in the bathroom, lying backward, with blood and urine on the floor. That indicates, Hahn said, that Di Fazio was urinating when his wife shot him.
Moreover, Hahn said, there was “no evidence of strangulation or assault,” and she could have fled. “She could have run down the stairs,” he said. “Even if you accept that she felt threatened … she chose to fight rather than flee.”
York sheiff’s deputies said they smelled alcohol on Fogarty and that she was “unsteady on her feet,” with Fogarty telling them she began the day by drinking whiskey. Hahn said several prescriptions in her name — for help with sleeping and panic disorder — warned the user not to drink alcohol, saying that doing so could cause irritability and “aggressive behavior.”
One prescription, to treat attention deficit disorder, was issued Sept. 20, with the user told to take two pills a day. Five days later, Hahn said, the 60-pill bottle was empty.
But Fogarty’s lawyer, Sacks, painted a different picture.
That morning, he said, Di Fazio — a weightlifter who stood 6 feet tall and weighed 325 pounds — “raped the defendant,” getting on top of her and holding her down, with the lawyer saying not all rapes leave physical signs.
Then, Sacks said, Di Fazio called her “a (expletive) whore,” slapped her and told her, “Don’t go crying to your mother over this.”
Later in the day, Fogarty called her mother, who Sacks said could hear Di Fazio “screaming in the background,” banging on the door, swearing and commanding Fogarty to open up the door.
Over the course of the couple’s one-year marriage, Sacks said, Di Fazio had 23 fully loaded guns around the house, displayed bizarre behavior — including thinking the CIA was monitoring the couple — and threatened to kill Fogarty if she reported abuse.
That Sunday afternoon, Sacks said, Di Fazio tried to rape her again, and at one point tried to smother her with a pillow. The lawyer said Fogarty tried to change the subject by asking Di Fazio if they were going to church.
According to Sacks, Di Fazio then told her they weren’t going to church: “Only one of us is leaving this house alive, and it’s not going to be you.”
After Fogarty told him she was leaving the relationship, Sacks said, Di Fazio continued to yell at her.
Fogarty later heard Di Fazio in the bathroom, fidgeting with the drawers. Thinking he was getting a gun, Sacks said, Fogarty went into the bathroom with another gun. Sacks said Di Fazio had his hands behind his back, called his wife “stupid,” told her the gun’s safety was on and dared her to pull the trigger.
Dujardin can be reached at 757-247-4749
