Affidavit: Jealousy triggered stabbing

ROCKLAND – Jealousy appears to have been the motive ascribed to the Palmyra man accused of stabbing his brother to death Sunday on North Haven island.

Enoch B. Petrucelly, 23, allegedly used a knife concealed in a “gentleman’s cane” to stab his 24-year-old brother, Michael, three times in the chest while Michael was sleeping. Enoch Petrucelly said he thought he and his brother were romantically involved with the same woman, according to the court affidavit released Tuesday.

Petrucelly, who is charged with murder, made his first court appearance Tuesday before Justice William Anderson in Knox County Superior Court.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, the defendant stood at attention beside his defense counsel, court-appointed attorney Howard F. O’Brien III of Portland.

Assistant Attorney General Leane Zainea, prosecutor in the case, asked for a psychiatric evaluation of the suspect to determine to what extent Petrucelly might have had a serious mental condition at the time of the stabbing.

Justice Anderson would not schedule the evaluation, however, until the issue of Petrucelly’s permanent defense could be resolved.

In a brief press conference outside the courtroom, O’Brien said he met with Petrucelly at the Knox County Jail on Monday.

“I’m not at liberty to talk about our discussion,” he said. “He told me he wanted another attorney.”

O’Brien described Petrucelly as appearing agitated. “He’s obviously upset,” he said. “But then he is facing a charge of murder.”

According to state police Detective Adam Kelley, the primary investigating officer in the case, Petrucelly said he and his brother, who shared a home in Palmyra, traveled to North Haven by ferry Saturday, Aug. 9, to visit with friends and attend a festival on the island.

Enoch Petrucelly told police he had planned to meet with a woman named Eva Lilley, 43, of Bangor, whose daughter lives on the island. He said he had had a romantic relationship with her for the past several years.

Petrucelly told Kelley that before the ferry ride from Rockland to North Haven he warned his brother Michael not to touch Eva “in that way,” or else he would kill him, according to the affidavit.

The suspect also told police that he and his brother spent Saturday night at the residence of their friends, Tiffany Wiles, who is Eva Lilley’s daughter, and Geoffrey Barrett at 353 Crabtree Point Road in North Haven.

The brothers slept on separate beds in the same room downstairs.

Enoch Petrucelly awoke early in the morning and found in the room a cane that could be taken apart to expose a sharp blade, he told Kelley.

He approached his sleeping brother and stabbed him three times with the weapon, each time in the heart or as close to it as he could come, Petrucelly told Kelley.

Michael Petrucelly made groaning sounds and then died, according to the affidavit.

Shortly afterward, Wiles came downstairs and discovered the situation. At that point, according to the court documents, Enoch Petrucelly told her that he had killed Michael.

While Barrett called 911 at about 5:42 a.m., Lilley, who is a nurse, unsuccessfully attempted CPR on the victim, according to the court documents. The affidavit is not clear on where Lilley was at the time of the stabbing.

When Knox County Deputy Robert Potter arrived at the scene at 5:53 a.m., he observed Lilley pushing Enoch Petrucelly out through an open glass door while shouting, “Get him out of here. He killed his … brother,” according to the affidavit.

Kelley of the state police later arrived on the island to take over the investigation.

“Shortly after my interview with Enoch was finished, I placed him under arrest for murder and transported him to Knox County Jail,” Kelley said in the affidavit.

Kelley said that when he spoke with personnel at the Knox County dispatch center, he learned that Enoch Petrucelly had told rescue personnel at the scene words to the effect that he had killed his brother.

Kelley said his interview with Petrucelly began at the town office in North Haven. They traveled by ferry back to the mainland and to the state police barracks in Thomaston for more interviewing.

Meanwhile, Michael Petrucelly’s body was taken back to the mainland by Maine Marine Patrol for an autopsy at the state medical examiner’s office, which on Monday attributed the death to multiple stab wounds to the chest.