By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

Lawyers representing Eric Windhurst, who’s accused of shooting to death Daniel Paquette 20 years ago, may have a hard time arguing self-defense, according to recent suggestions made by the case’s presiding judge.

Windhurst, 38, of Hopkinton, was arrested in December of last year and charged with the murder of Paquette, who was shot once through the heart in front of his Whitehall Road, Hooksett, home in November 1985.

Jonathan Cohen and Mark Sisti, representing Windhurst, have said their client may claim the shooting was in defense of Windhurst’s high school friend and Paquette’s stepdaughter, Melanie Cooper, and members of her family.

The defense lawyers have argued that Paquette was sexually, physically and emotionally abusive to Cooper, and that he threatened to kill Cooper’s mother and her children prior to the shooting.

Windhurst’s lawyers asked for the court to allow two sets of counseling records leading up to the 1985 shooting, which they contend could support the self-defense claim.

Windhurst’s lawyers seek records of counseling sessions between a psychiatrist, Cooper and Cooper’s aunt, Kathleen McGuire, who’s now a Merrimack County Superior Court associate justice. The records, they argue, could show Cooper’s state of fear of her stepfather prior to the shooting.

The defense also seeks records of counseling sessions between Paquette and Peter Mason, a psychologist and social worker who treated Paquette during and after Paquette’s stay in the New Hampshire Hospital, which treats mentally ill patients who pose a threat of danger to themselves or others.

In a July 3 opinion, Merrimack County Superior Court Chief Justice Robert J. Lynn agreed that the privileged records could be relevant to the defense’s argument and agreed to examine them to determine if they should be available to Windhurst’s lawyers.

Lynn also suggested the records would likely be inadmissible in a trial involving what he suggested could be a tenuous self-defense claim.

“Such evidence would in all likelihood be inadmissible unless the defense first offered evidence that, at the very time of the shooting, (Paquette) was about to attack Melanie (Cooper) or the defendant,” Lynn wrote.

Further, Lynn wrote, “To date, the record contains no evidence of any such imminent attack by Daniel against Melanie or the defendant at or around the time of the shooting.”

Lynn also said state prosecutors satisfied a motion filed by Windhurst’s lawyers that prosecutors release police records relating to an alleged attempt in 1980 of Paquette to kill his ex-wife, and Cooper’s mother, Denise Paquette.

According to a 1980 Manchester police report, Denise Paquette alleged that Daniel Paquette bought a gun a day before calling her and threatening to kill her and her three children. In the report, Daniel Paquette then allegedly chased his ex-wife down Manchester’s Elm Street in his vehicle, and again threatened her.

The threats would have violated a restraining order placed on Daniel Paquette, the records show.

In other procedural issues, Lynn denied requests from Windurst’s lawyers that he recuse himself from the case.

The defense has argued that Lynn’s supervisory relationship to McGuire, who’s anticipated to take the witness stand as Cooper’s aunt, could create impartiality.

Lynn also denied a requests from Sisti and Cohen to view professional evaluations of McGuire completed by Lynn.

“The defendant has not alleged or shown that any of the conditions warranting public disclosure exist with respect to Justice McGuire,” Lynn wrote.

Cooper, who has told police she was with Windhurst on the day of the shooting, was living with McGuire at the time.

Cooper came forward to police about her knowledge of Windhurst’s alleged role in Paquette’s death in 2004, and has agreed to plead guilty to the charge of misleading investigators in exchange for her testimony.

If convicted, Windhurst faces life imprisonment.