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Malloch trial underway: Man allegedly assaulted longtime partner

By Dean Shalhoup - Senior Staff Writer | Sep 19, 2018

Staff photo by Dean Shalhoup A court officer directs Justin Malloch, whose assault trial got underway Tuesday in Hillsborough County Superior Court South, to his seat at the defense table. Testimony is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

NASHUA – When she rose to deliver her opening statement at the start of Justin Malloch’s assault trial Tuesday morning, Assistant County Attorney Cassie Devine began by apologizing to the jurors for what they were about to see.

Moments later, the eight men and six women, including the alternates, who are tasked with determining whether Malloch is guilty of violently assaulting two women in January stared without expression at a series of photos depicting the bloodied, beaten face of the younger woman.

Malloch, 36, a resident of Pelham until he was jailed after his arrest after the Jan. 16-17 incident, sat with his lawyers, attorneys Kara Simard and Ryan Guptill, as Devine described the images as depicting “the injuries that (the alleged victim) suffered at the hands of Justin Malloch.”

Malloch is being tried on a total of seven charges, including one count each of first-degree assault, a felony, and second-degree assault, also a felony.

The other five charges, all misdemeanors, include two counts each of simple assault and criminal threatening, and one count of domestic violence – simple assault, according to the charging documents as read to the jury by Deputy Clerk Amy Feliciano.

The trial, over which Judge Jacalyn Colburn is presiding in Hillsborough County Superior Court-South, is scheduled to resume at 10 a.m. today.

While Devine told the jury the evidence will prove that Malloch is guilty as charged “beyond a reasonable doubt,” Simard countered in the defense’s opening statement that the entire case is based on “lies … lies and a rush to judgment.

The police took one look at her injuries and decided to arrest Justin,” Simard said, referring to the younger woman, who until January had been in a relationship with Malloch since they met in 2003.

Police arrested Malloch “before they talked to him … talked to any witnesses, before they fully investigated the scene,” Simard added.

She predicted jurors, “when you take a second look, you will see that (the alleged victim) lied,” and allegedly told “different versions” of what happened.

The second woman Malloch is accused of assaulting is his longtime partner’s mother. She and her husband own the home where they, Malloch, his partner and their two children were living at the time.

His former partner was the first to testify Tuesday, called to the stand by Devine after opening statements.

She told the court that Malloch was working on the home’s water heater the evening of Jan. 16, and at one point, after they “did quite a few shots” of vodka, she confronted him about “stuff I found on my phone.”

What she found led her to believe Malloch was being unfaithful to her, the woman said.

Aside from Malloch allegedly poking her twice with a drill bit, the argument wasn’t physical at that point, she said. But when she woke up around 2:30 a.m., saw a light on in the bathroom and went to investigate, she said she saw Malloch sitting on the toilet “a needle in his arm … and a glass pipe hanging from his lip.”

When she shouted at him, asking “what the hell are you doing?” he allegedly “lunged … toward me, grabbed my neck … put his knee on my sternum … he’s choking me, punching me in the face like I’m a man,” she said.

“He said ‘I hate you,’ told me he didn’t love me anymore … he said he was gonna kill me.”

His eyes were black … he looked like a devil, like it wasn’t him anymore. I really believed it, I really did,” she said when Devine asked her if she thought Malloch was going to kill her.

Hearing the commotion, the woman’s mother, who Devine said is 69 years old, is diabetic and has an artificial leg, made her way to the bathroom. She told Malloch to stop, saying “Justin, you’re going to kill her,” her daughter testified.

“He said, ‘that’s what I want,'” she added.

Malloch then allegedly struck the older woman in the head, causing her to fall backward and to fall down a set of stairs. Her artificial leg “flew off” as she fell, her daughter testified.

Guptill, Malloch’s co-counsel, began his cross-examination by going over in fine detail the alleged victim’s statements to police at the scene, at the hospital and in later interviews, as well as what she told nurses and doctors at the hospital.

He said the woman initially told police she saw her mother’s artificial leg “fly off,” but later, she said her father told her it happened.

At times appearing exasperated with Guptill’s detailed approach to certain segments of her statements and earlier testimony, the woman occasionally responded in a snippy, sometimes sarcastic tone, which at one point prompted Colburn to remind her to “listen to the questions and answer with your testimony, OK?”

The reminder followed an exchange in which she sighed deeply and said “oh, my God” in response to one of Guptill’s questions.

Questions regarding certain details, such as the number of times she believes Malloch allegedly punched her or whether she could establish an accurate time frame of events that night, clearly irked the woman.

“I don’t know … I was too busy getting hit,” she responded to one question. “I was concerned about my face being ripped open … I didn’t care about anything but my face,” she told Guptill in a raised voice.

Others expected to testify in what is estimated to be a three-day trial include Pelham police officers, and possibly the older alleged victim.

It’s not yet known if Malloch will take the stand.

Dean Shalhoup can be reached at 594-1256, dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com or @Telegraph_DeanS.

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