Third trial for murder on horizon for Tribble

The new Lamoille County state’s attorney, Paul Finnerty, has yet to meet Dennis Tribble, the man prosecutors have been trying for 15 years to convict of murder.

Tribble missed another court appearance this week, so Finnerty will have to wait a while longer to meet the man and prepare for a third murder trial.

Because Tribble had the flu, he was not transported to court Monday from his holding cell at the Northwest State Correctional Facility in Swanton.

Tribble is accused of murdering his North Wolcott neighbor, Michael Borello, in September 2000. Tribble says he shot Borello in self-defense.

Twice Tribble has been found guilty of murder, and twice those guilty verdicts have been overturned by the Vermont Supreme Court.

Tribble was convicted of first-degree murder in 2002, but it was a wacky trial, with Tribble firing three court-appointed lawyers before the trial even started, and then refusing to represent himself. A judge allowed the case to continue, with Tribble boycotting his own trial. In 2005, the Supreme Court threw out the conviction, saying Tribble wasn’t provided adequate legal representation.

A second trial, in 2009, resulted in a conviction for second-degree murder, plus a couple of more firings of defense attorneys. That verdict was also overturned, with Supreme Court justices saying the lower court made errors in the case.

Finnerty is now preparing for his turn to try Tribble; the previous trials were handled by Finnerty’s predecessor, Joel Page, the Lamoille County state’s attorney for 32 years.

Finnerty said Tribble wants the court to provide written jury instructions and he wants access to the Vermont Criminal Information Center database. He said Tribble has also complained about how the chief state medical examiner’s office has used blood samples collected after Borello was shot.

The next status conference in Tribble’s case is scheduled for April 28.