Daughter Testifies in Piantedosi Murder Trial

It was a difficult day in the trial of Christopher Piantedosi, 40, the suspect in the 2012 stabbing murder of Kristen Pulisciano. 

Piantedosi and Pulisciano's daughter, Bryanna Piantedosi, 16, took the stand at Middlesex Superior Court and answered questions about the night of the stabbing. 

According to authorities, at approximately 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, 2012, Burlington Police responded to 23 Forbes Avenue for a report of a stabbing. Upon arrival, officers located a female victim, with clearly fatal stab wounds.  The victim, Kristen Pulisciano, 38, was pronounced dead at the scene in her home.

Burlington Police and the Massachusetts State Police assigned to the Middlesex District Attorney's Office launched an immediate investigation into the circumstances of the stabbing.  It is alleged that the defendant, who had had a long-standing relationship with the victim, stabbed the victim inside her residence and then fled. 

In court on Monday the suspect was visibly upset when his daughter entered the courtroom. When she entered he lowered his eyes and moments later began to cry. Bryanna, for her part, remained composed throughout the questions from Middlesex District Attorney's Office Prosecutor Nicole Allan and defense attorney Michael Collora. 

The first part of Allan's questions revolved around the family and the lay-out of the Forbes Avenue home. Allan took Bryanna through a series of questions to give the jury an understanding of how the house was set up and how certain pieces of evidence, including a knife block in the kitchen and the window where the iPad that a friend of the teen reportedly witness the murder, fit together. 

There were new details that came from Bryanna's testimony. First she said that her father and mother would regularly have verbal arguments, but to her knowledge there had been no violence in the past. Normally after an argument Piantedosi would leave the house for a few days or a week, spending time at his parents' house in Methuen. 

Bryanna also said that when Piantedosi was at home he slept in a bedroom while Pulisciano always slept on a couch in the living room. In his cross examination Collora suggested that was because Piantedosi got up early while Pulisciano preferred to stay up late. 

There were also questions concerning items of clothing found in the house with rips and slice marks. Bryanna said the damage done to the clothing, which was owned by Pulisciano, was done by her father. She said her mother showed her the damaged clothing one day and said it was Piantedosi who caused the damage. She said this upset her mother. 

Bryanna also detailed the night of May 3, 2012 and the events of the day leading up to the attack. 

She said that while at school she received a text message from Piantedosi, who had been out of the house since before Easter following a verbal argument with Pulisciano, while she was at school inviting her for ice cream later that day. He said he had school and he would pick her up afterwards at the house. 

Bryanna said that afternoon she went to the house with a friend and the two hung out in her room. At 4:28 p.m. she received a text from Piantedosi saying he wanted her friend to leave before he arrived at the house. Bryanna said she also spoke with her mother who said she didn't want Piantedosi arriving at the house before she got home from work, normally sometime around 5:30 p.m. 

Bryanna said her mother returned home and soon after, around 5:45 p.m., Piantedosi arrived. She said when he arrived he was acting strange, walking up and down the basement stairs, for about five to 10 minutes before speaking to her and Pulisciano. She said he asked her if she was hungry and when she said yes Pulisciano ordered Chinese delivery for her. 

At that point Bryanna said her parents began to argue and her father told her to go to her room. While there she began a video chat using the program ooVoo on her iPad to speak to her friend Michael Edwards. Edwards testified in court last week that he had witnessed Piantedosi murder Pulisciano in Bryanna's room after the video chat program was left running. 

Bryanna said that while talking with Edwards she heard someone at the door and thought her dinner had arrived. She left her room, leaving her iPad on a window sill in her room, and went to answer the door. Instead she heard her parents arguing in the kitchen and went into that room. She said her mother was holding her face as if she had been slapped. 

Bryanna said at that point her father told her to go back to her room but her mother told her not to do so. She said Pulisciano went into the living room at attempted to call the police but, possibly misdialing, did not get through. She said Piantedosi told Pulisciano to put down the phone and that Pulisciano told him to put down a knife. It was then that Bryanna said she saw her father pull a small knife out of his pants pocket. 

Bryanna said her father did put the knife down on a table in the living room and her mother grabbed it and held it against her chest pointed at Piantedosi and repeatedly told him to "get out" of the house. He kept saying "we can settle this" according to the testimony. 

Bryanna said her father then hugged her in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room and said "I love you" and she responded "Are you trying to kill mom or something?" She said her father then went into the kitchen, grabbed a butchers knife, and chased Pulisciano into her, Bryanna's, bedroom. She said she heard the door close followed by a loud bang. Earlier reports indicated the bedroom door had been forced open during the attack. 

According to her testimony, Bryanna followed her parents into her bedroom and saw her father on top of her mother on her bed. Bryanna said she could see blood coming from her mother's side and that Piantedosi was stabbing her. Bryanna said she tried to pull Piantedosi off of her mother by choking him and pulling on the hood of his sweatshirt but could not move him. 

She said she then grabbed her phone and ran outside the house where she met the woman delivering Chinese food. The woman, identified as Amy, asked what had happened and Bryanna told her that her father was killing her mother. Amy directed Bryanna into the backseat of her car and drove her to the police station while Bryanna called 911 and alerted police to the situation. 

She said before they pulled out of the parking lot she saw Piantedosi emerge from the house and pull off his sweatshirt. He then started to walk in the direction of his vehicle as the two women left the scene. 

Bryanna is due back to complete her testimony Tuesday morning. Court ended while she was being questioned by defense attorney Collora.