BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Opening arguments began Friday in the trial of a Vermont man accused of brutally murdering his wife on their anniversary camping trip in 2021.
Police say Joseph Ferlazzo and his wife, Emily, left New Hampshire to spend their one-year wedding anniversary in Vermont, but Ferlazzo eventually returned to Emily’s parent’s property without her.
He originally told Emily’s parents that the two got into an argument in Bolton and she walked away from their camper van. However, prosecutors say he confessed to police that he suggested the two lay down after the argument and that’s when he grabbed a handgun, got on top of Emily, and shot her twice. They say he then dismembered her body, leaving the remains in trash bags inside the camper that was abandoned in St. Albans.
“Through the course of the trial, you’ll hear how Mr. Ferlazzo’s own statements match the physical and forensic evidence in this case. You will not hear that Emily posed any threat to Mr. Ferlazzo,” Chittenden County Deputy State’s Attorney Sally Adams told the jury during opening arguments.
Ferlazzo’s lawyer, Margaret Jansch, told jurors that he acted in self-defense. “He was afraid for his life, believed she was going to shoot and kill him. ‘That’s it, you’re dead,’ she said to him. And he shot her twice in the head,” Jansch said.
The state has already started calling witnesses, including Ferlazzo’s sister, Emily’s mother, and Vermont State Police troopers. Jansch has said Ferlazzo plans to testify.
Reporter Cam Smith will have more on the opening day of the trial on the Channel 3 News at 6.