NORTHAMPTON — Following closing remarks by the prosecution and defense in the murder trial of Steven Malloy, the jury began deliberations in the case Thursday.

Malloy, 35, of Northampton, is charged with first-degree murder over the death of Joseph Fillio, 39, of Pittsfield, who died from a gunshot wound on Dec. 1, 2021 in an apartment on the corner of Randolph Place and Pleasant Street in Northampton. The prosecution, led by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Thomas, centered its argument on the witness testimony of Todd Wilchek, who said he saw Malloy pull out a gun and shoot Fillio in the head during the party.

The defense attorney for Malloy, Joseph Perullo, has called Wilchek’s testimony into question and focused on many of the forensic aspects of the case, claiming they show Malloy could not have fired the gun, while suggesting that Fillio may have taken his own life.

Perullo began his closing remarks by holding up a final piece of evidence he had submitted on Wednesday, which the jury would review during its deliberations: a series of Fillio’s medical records from the Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield. He read from an entry dated April 6, 2021, where Fillio was admitted after having overdosed with the intention of killing himself.

He also said the records showed Fillio had a history of depression, substance abuse, mood disorder, anxiety and suicidal ideation. Perullo added that Fillio had been living in a “trap house” where drugs and weapons frequently circulated.

“It’s a lot of pages, but please take care to read these pages, because it gives a little more context for who is in the Randolph [Place] apartment,” Perullo said. “What other facts did they [the prosecution] tell you about Joseph? Where does he live? Don’t know. What does he do? You don’t know.”

Perullo also criticized the prosecution and law enforcement for not looking further into communications between those involved in the case, including Wilchek, Malloy, Fillio and Chhieng Iv, a mutual acquaintance of all three men who was also in the apartment at the time of Fillio’s death. Police had performed a forensic search of Malloy’s phone that produced a photograph of Malloy’s hand holding a gun that matched the description of the murder weapon given by Wilchek during testimony, a picture that appears to have been sent to Malloy’s phone rather than taken by Malloy himself.

“What if [the sender] was Chhieng? What if it was Joe Fillio? Did Joe and Steven know each other? That would be incredibly important to know, because they were alleging that he shot him in the head for some unknown reason, and they have had zero evidence of a relationship between them,” Perullo said. “The government’s case is this [shooting] happened in a vacuum and the only person who can say what happened was Todd Wilchek.”

Lastly, Perullo argued Wilchek’s testimony should be doubted for several reasons, including the fact that Wilchek left the house briefly before the estimated time of the killing, which Wilchek claimed was to make a phone call to a friend in Colorado. He also questioned Wilchek’s recollection of playing with a cat while in the apartment the night Fillio was killed, when officers testified they had not seen signs a cat resided at the apartment.

Perullo said that Wilchek’s timeline of events did not make sense and that Wilcheck, who has an Ivy League education, wanted to protect his reputation by testifying.

“Somebody that goes to Cornell, self-preservation a really important thing to them,” Perullo said. “If somebody tells you they played with something, or they see something, and there’s quite literally no evidence that that thing existed, what do you do in your daily life experience? You begin to doubt what that person’s telling you.”

Thomas made the state’s closing argument after Perullo, beginning with a quote from former U.S. President John Adams, who Perullo had also invoked in his opening statement: “Facts are stubborn things.” He said much of the evidence produced in the trial matched the description of the shooting by Wilchek, whose testimony under oath identified Malloy as the killer of Fillio.

Thomas showed a photo of the kitchen table in the apartment taken by police, saying everyday items depicted in it such as rolling papers and Corona-brand beer bottles bolstered Wilchek’s testimony.

“Thinking back to Mr. Wilchek’s testimony, he has Chhieng at the far end of the table rolling a blunt; he has them drinking Coronas,” Thomas said. “And here’s the thing: There’s no reason for Mr. Wilchek to make this up.”

Thomas emphasized that although Wilchek has never seen the photo of the handgun recovered from Malloy’s phone, his description of the firearm used matches perfectly with it. He also referenced a police bodycam video from the night of Fillio’s death with Wilchek arriving back to scene after Fillio was killed, and although there is no sound, Thomas said Wilchek’s hand gestures show him giving a description of the gun.

Thomas also disputed the theory that Fillio was suicidal the night of his death. To support this, he replayed security footage from the Millennium Package Store that showed the group walking toward the apartment earlier in the evening. Thomas noted how at one point, Fillio crosses a crosswalk and does a quick step to move out of the way as a car approaches the crosswalk.

“An hour before the killing, his instinct and his intention is to save himself, not harm himself,” Thomas said. “Ladies and gentlemen, facts are stubborn things.”

The jury will continue its deliberations Friday morning.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.