Drug test results requested on Fayette commissioner Vicites
The attorney for the woman who allegedly shot her husband in July is requesting a dismissal of charges, requested a psychiatrist, a change of venue and a gunshot residue and opioid test on the alleged victim, Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Vicites.
The 50-page motion filed by Doug Sepic, attorney for Deanna Vicites, requested that opioid test results for Vincent Vicites be made available to him.
Sepic said he filed the motion in the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas on Friday.
Sepic’s motion stated that in the discovery provided by the commonwealth, several photographs of the interior of the Vicites’ South Union Township home show two locations where there appears to be used and unused stamp bags of heroin marked with the name “Pussycat.”
Sepic stated that blood tests on Deanna Vicites at Uniontown Hospital showed negative results for opioids in her system, but Sepic added that the records did not contain any affirmative testing for opioids at any time on the date of the shooting.
Deanna Vicites, 48, allegedly shot her husband in the neck in the early morning of July 17 at their South Union Township home.
Vincent Vicites spent several weeks in the hospital before returning to his post as a county commissioner.
After Vincent Vicites was shot, his wife reportedly told investigators first that she was trying to kill herself when her husband pulled the gun away from her and was accidentally shot. She later reportedly told police that she shot her husband in self-defense because he was physically abusing her.
Police have said they were unable to verify either claim.
According to Sepic’s motion, the relevance for the opioid test of Vincent Vicites would be to show whether his memory of events was impaired by drugs and/or would be relevant to corroborate or contradict potential testimony concerning his behavior on the evening of July 17.
Sepic has also asked prosecutors to produce the gunshot residue test results for Vincent Vicites, permission for the defense to search the crime scene, suppression of the gunshot residue test on Deanna Vicites as Sepic said no search warrant was issued to conduct the test, suppression of evidence found from the interior of the house because police did not have sufficient probable cause or a warrant to enter the home, suppression of her written and verbal statements and to order Deanna Vicites’ two cellphones to be turned over to the defense for inspection.
Also included was a motion to change the venue of the trial from Fayette County due to Vince Vicites being a county commissioner and the media coverage following the shooting.
In September, Sepic filed a motion requesting all the judges in the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas to recuse themselves from presiding over the case because of Vince Vicities’ position as a commissioner, which led to all but Senior Judge Gerald Solomon recusing themselves from the case.
The filing also stated that the charges against Deanna Vicites including persons not to posses a firearm and resisting arrest should be quashed because her guilty plea and conviction to conspiracy to commit burglary in 2003 is not an offense that renders a person ineligible to possess a firearm, and she did not resist arrest because police attempted to take her into custody minutes after their arrival when it was not supported by probable cause.
Sepic also requested a psychiatrist examine Deanna Vicites and testify that she allegedly suffers from battered woman syndrome, requested an investigator to locate and interview potential witnesses and requested a firearms trajectory expert to determine if it’s scientifically or factually possible for the shooting to have occurred as Vincent Vicites testified.
Deanna Vicites faces charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault, possession of a firearm, reckless endangerment, simple assault and resisting arrest.
In October, Sepic filed a motion to lessen Deanna Vicite’s bond. A hearing on that motion is scheduled for Dec. 27 in the Fayette County Courthouse before Senior Judge Gerlad R. Solomon.
She remains lodged in the Greene County Prison in lieu of $250,000 cash bond.