Gonzalez’ attorney: DA is ‘skeptical’
By Thor Jourgensen/The Daily Item
LYNN-Ernesto Gonzalez’ attorney found himself defending his client Friday even as he discounted the self-confessed killer’s words.
Lawrence McGuire said the father of missing 5-year-old Giovanni Gonzalez will “definitely not be available” for more jail house interviews like the one he gave Wednesday in which he claimed he killed his son, whom he said was “behaving badly” on Aug. 17.
McGuire also said evidence gathered in police searches of Gonzalez’ downtown apartment does not match Gonzalez’ account of how he stabbed the boy, cut up his body in the bathtub, and threw the bagged body parts in Dumpsters.
“Nothing in the results supports what he said. I would say the District Attorney is skeptical.”
Gonzalez pleaded innocent to child endangerment on Aug. 18 in Lynn District Court and has been held on $500,000 bail in the Essex County Correctional Facility since then.
He has not changed his plea, new charges have not been filed against him and he is due back in court on Dec. 11. Gonzalez turned down The Item’s request for an interview Friday, telling facility spokesman Paul Fleming, “I’m not speaking to any more reporters right now.”
In the meantime, those surrounding the case continue to wonder if Gonzalez lied or told the truth in his confession. Information gathered by investigators and comments made by people who know Gonzalez buttress some of his confessional statements while discounting others.
Dumpsters are located at two of the locations where he said he dumped his son’s body parts: The former Eastern Bank on Union Street and the Big Lots outlet on Boston Street.
Gonzalez identified “the stone church near Lynn Common” as the third site. Four buildings fit that description and Dumpsters are located next to St Mary’s Church and St. George Greek Orthodox Church.
But District Attorney’s spokesman Steve O’Connell said investigators checked Dumpsters at the locations named by Gonzalez and others across the city “several times in the course of the investigation.”
“This remains ongoing,” O’Connell said.
Gonzalez also claimed his son’s behavior triggered the killing. Daisy Colon, the boy’s mother, on Nov. 12 said the need to maintain consistent parenting techniques with the boy prompted her and Gonzalez to seek counseling.
When Gonzalez pushed last summer to see his son on a regular basis, Colon said she stressed the importance of the counseling.
“I said I have to see — you keep going in and out of his life,” she said.
Items taken from Gonzalez’ Brightwood Terrace apartment, including a kitchen knife and trash bags, match ones he mentioned in his confession.
A state crime laboratory chemist initially detected blood traces on a mop head and a cleaning fluid container bottle cap taken from Gonzalez’ apartment on Aug. 18. But state crime lab tests determined the blood was not the boy’s.
State Police also took swab samples and used a chemical spray to detect non-visible blood during their Aug. 18 search.
“We can’t discuss the results of scientific testing,” O’Connell said Friday.
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