NORTHAMPTON — The defense attorney for Steven Malloy, a Northampton man on trial for first-degree murder, spent part of Thursday morning attempting to poke holes in the prosecution’s version of events regarding the killing of Joseph Fillio in December of 2021, questioning a key witness’s ability to recall the events of that evening and the physical possibility of events based on a medical examiner’s report.

In court a day earlier, witness Todd Wilchek testified that he saw Malloy pull the trigger after pointing a gun at Fillio’s temple, and that Malloy later told him “It could have been you,” followed by “I’m in the CIA.” He said he witnessed the event at a house party at the apartment of Jessica Dupell in Northampton, having earlier in the night performed at an open mic event at the Wurst Haus bar and restaurant downtown before meeting up with a group of people that included Malloy, Fillio and Dupell.

Joseph Perullo, Malloy’s attorney, on Thursday cross-examined Wilchek, asking him about his background and how he came to know Chhieng Iv, the mutual acquaintance between Wilchek and Malloy who had invited Wilchek to join the group of friends the night of Fillio’s death.

On the stand, Wilchek admitted that in the past he had struggled with drugs like alcohol, cocaine and nitrous oxide, having been hospitalized near the end of the 2010s, but he denied that it had any long-term effects on his brain. He said he couldn’t remember exactly when he first met Iv, but that he likely saw him hanging around Pulaski Park.

Perullo then asked Wilchek if Iv was homeless when they first became acquainted, with Wilchek responding that sometimes he was and sometimes he wasn’t. Perullo made a point to contrast Iv’s lifestyle with that of Wilchek, who attended a private boarding school and graduated from an Ivy League university. Perullo asked if Iv gave Wilchek access to drugs, which Wilchek denied, saying the two were “legitimately friends.”

Wilchek also said, when asked by Perullo, that he remembered playing with a kitten when at Dupell’s apartment the night Fillio was shot. That testimony contrasts with Michael Knowlton, the first police officer to respond to the scene, who said he did not see a cat. Perullo also noted Wilchek in initial statements to police said he was “too drunk to remember” certain details of that night, but Wilchek responded that only applied to certain timeline of events, not the actual shooting itself.

“That was in regards to the timing and when people were going in and out of the apartment,” Wilchek said. “It’s impossible to forget watching someone be shot in the head.”

Following that line of questioning, Perullo then played security footage from an area around Pleasant Street which Wilchek correctly identified as being outside the Live 155 apartment complex. The footage showed Wilchek walking, with a timestamp indicating around 10:20 p.m., when Wilchek said he was inside the apartment. Wilchek said he had gone out to make a phone call during that time, but returned shortly after, and had not mentioned it to police or during previous testimony because he did not deem it relevant.

Thursday’s trial session also saw testimony from Christopher Perry, the medical examiner who performed the autopsy of Fillio’s body following the killing. Perry told prosecutor Matthew Thomas that the cause of death was from a gunshot wound fired at close range, and that a toxicology report showed the Fillio had alcohol, cocaine, THC and amphetamines in his blood system, but they were not the cause of his death. Perry also said he reviewed medical records from the Berkshire Medical Center that showed references that Fillio had suicidal ideations.

On cross-examination, Perullo noted that in Perry’s report, the bullet had traveled “laterally” from left to right, and asked if that meant that it traveled on a “flat plane.” Perry said that it would be considered as such. Fillio, at 6-feet, 3-inches tall, was significantly taller than Malloy, and Perullo implied that a gun fired by Malloy at Fillio’s temple would have shot a bullet at an angle.

On the prosecution’s redirect, Perry said that while no angle was found or noted in the medical report, he also had not measured to see if there had been one.

“It could have been slightly higher, slightly lower than the entrance wound itself,” Perry said. “It was just documented as being left to right.”

In addition to first-degree murder, Malloy is charged with unlawful possession of a firearm.

The trial is expected to resume Friday and continue into next week.

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