NORTHAMPTON — A Greenfield man serving consecutive life sentences for the 2005 murder of a Deerfield gas station attendant, who was seven months pregnant at the time of her death, will not get a new trial.
The motion for a new trial for Dennis M. Bateman, 55, heard in Hampshire Superior Court in May by Judge John A. Agostini, who oversaw the original trial 12 years ago, was denied in a decision he issued Friday. That decision is automatically appealed to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court.
Agostini explained in his 17-page decision that the evidence offered during the evidentiary hearing failed to convince him that Bateman did not receive a fair trial in 2007, when he was convicted of the first-degree murder of Brandy M. Waryasz, 21, by strangulation, and causing the death of her unborn son. Bateman was also found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without parole.
“We’re pleased with the thorough and thoughtful decision of Judge Agostini in denying the defendant’s motion for a new trial,” Northwestern District Attorney David E. Sullivan said in a statement. “And we look forward to defending these convictions in the Supreme Judicial Court.”
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Townsend and First Assistant District Attorney Steven E. Gagne opposed the motion for a new trial at the evidentiary hearing.
One of the primary reasons the new trial was sought was Bateman’s claim that a key witness lied during his trial. At the hearing in May, a focus was on an affidavit signed by ex-convict Victor Marquez in 2017, in which Marquez claims that prosecutors compelled jailhouse informant Anthony Bogacz to take the stand and lie about Bateman.
But Agostini rejected this argument, writing in part, that “Bateman has not offered credible evidence that Bogacz had with the government an articulated agreement with a specific benefit or promise.”
In addition, Agostoni wrote that Bateman’s contention that the jury was prejudiced against a black man with a criminal record and the victim was a white woman.
“In sum, Bateman has failed to show that presumptive prejudice tainted the jury at his trial,” Agostini wrote.
At the original trial, the jury determined that Waryasz, whose body was found with a black nylon strap tied tightly around her neck, was killed by Bateman, whom prosecutors described as a crack cocaine addict and career thief. The jurors reached the conclusion after several witnesses said Bateman was at the gas station shortly before the murder, and his DNA was also found in large amounts on the nylon strap and under Waryasz’s fingernails from where she had apparently tried to fight him off.
Bateman’s wife, Suzanne Therrien, was present for the evidentiary hearing in May and in an email sent to the Gazette in June said that she stands by her husband’s innocence, observing there were issues with the DNA evidence and that the cash register stolen from the gas station was never located.
Scott Merzbach can be reached at smerzbach@gazettenet.com.
