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NORTHRUP CONFESSION NEVER MADE IT INTO TWO COURTROOMS

Rochester attorney John Parrinello reportedly will be paid as much as $350,000 for his recent defense of accused killer Michael Northrup, and sources in legal circles here say he was worth every penny.

The one-man Dream Team secured mistrials for Northrup last year in the Lockport courtroom of Judge Peter Broderick, and again earlier this month in Judge Amy Fricano's Niagara Falls courtroom, despite a mountain of evidence against his client that included:

• A damning confession signed by Northrup following his arrest for the 1998 murder of John Montstream. Parrinello succeeded in having the document suppressed as "prejudicial" prior to the first trial, and jurors in both proceedings were unaware of its existence.
• A blood-spattered .357 Magnum revolver found under Northrup's bed. Parrinello managed to confuse jurors and journalists covering the trial as to the type of weapon used to kill Montstream, and convinced at least one juror that dried blood matching the victim's and found on the gun had been planted by police eager to make an arrest in the case.
• The testimony of Annette Montstream, the victim's wife. She told the jury that she was having a sexual relationship with Northrup and that he murdered her husband at her request. Mrs. Montstream pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and faces 20 to 41 years in prison when she is sentenced.
• The near total lack of a credible alibi. Although Parrinello argued Northrup was home watching television with his brother at the time of the murder, the brother never has been called to testify and back up the story.

"If it was my brother who was on trial for murder and there was something I could do to help him out, I'd be there in a minute," one observer said.

Prosecutors told the jury Annette Montstream and Northrup lured Montstream from the family's home to a Rochester-area park, where he was shot in the head. The bullet smashed through the victim's skull and has not been recovered.

The killer then drove Montstream's body to Niagara Falls and left the victim in his own minivan, parked in a Niagara Street parking ramp, where it was discovered a week later.

Objecting hundreds of times during the course of the trial--including 42 times during the prosecution's closing arguments alone--Parrinello refused to concede that the decomposing corpse found in Montstream's van was even that of Montstream.

Furthermore, Parrinello countered that Mrs. Montstream shot her husband herself, and only fingered Northrup to avoid a murder charge and get a lighter sentence.

Using a Rochester newspaper story from early in the investigation that quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying the victim was shot with a large-caliber handgun like a .45, Parrinello contended the .357 found underneath Northrup's bed could not have been the murder weapon, despite ballistic evidence presented by the prosecution. Furthermore, he managed to raise doubts about the legitimacy of the blood evidence found on the weapon.

In this and other matters, the jury split clearly along racial lines.

"The three African-American jurors had strong personal opinions about the police department planting evidence," said a white juror designated by the court as No. 6. "I felt there was a chance tampering could have been done, but when I saw the red spots on the handle (from a photograph taken of the gun when it was first seized), my mind was made up. I was 100 percent sure he was the triggerman."

Another juror, identified by the court as No. 11, agreed.

"I'm very disillusioned with the whole criminal justice system," she said, adding she since has called the Montstream family to apologize. "The case could not have been any clearer."

Judge Fricano declared a mistrial on April 2 after an African-American juror identified as No. 10 wrote her a note complaining of racial bias in the deliberation room and alleging one juror had assaulted another. Subsequently, the two jurors involved in the incident denied any assault had taken place, a denial backed up by other jurors who witnessed what took place.

Pretrial motions for Northrup's third trial are expected to begin in May, with the trial itself scheduled for July. Again he will be charged with second-degree murder, conspiracy and criminal possession of a weapon. In the meantime, he remains free on $250,000 bail.

The third time might be the charm for the prosecution, however, as Parrinello has announced he will be unavailable to represent Northrup.

Still, should jurors be unable to reach a verdict for a third time, Northrup's attorneys could petition the state to drop all charges against him.