When police met up with Jason Alleyne on Donovan Street in Concord, he was sweating profusely, wide-eyed, shirtless and wearing blue Hawaiian shorts. He was high on crystal methamphetamine and told officers he’d just been swimming in a brook.
During questioning, he told officers he hadn’t been at the Circle K Irving gas station on Route 3A in Bow and hadn’t seen his wife, Saturn, in a while. But video surveillance footage captured at the gas station and multiple witness accounts quickly painted a different picture, one of an enraged husband who had driven after his wife until she was pinned under a car.
Over the next week, jurors will hear testimony in the attempted murder case against Alleyne, 29, who began his trial Thursday by asking for a guilty finding on the second-degree murder charge and not on the more serious felony offense.
“Jason did not act with a purpose to kill or injure his wife,” defense attorney Aileen O’Connell said. “He is not guilty of the most serious crimes the state has charged him with.”
Alleyne is on trial in Merrimack County Superior Court in Concord for attempted murder, first-degree assault, second-degree assault, criminal threatening, criminal mischief and simple assault.
Prosecutors allege he verbally threatened to kill Saturn Alleyne before jumping into the driver’s seat of her Nissan Maxima and accelerating over her at the Circle K in late August. Saturn suffered a broken collarbone, broken vertebrae and a broken finger. Police said several witnesses lifted the vehicle off of her and that Alleyne fled the scene on foot, running across Interstate 93 near the Days Inn motel.
O’Connell told jurors in opening statements Thursday that Alleyne was high on drugs, an emotional wreck, hadn’t slept in days and had considered suicide in the bathroom of the Days Inn just prior to the incident at the Circle K nearby.
“This case is about a series of frenzied, chaotic and out-of-control hours of Jason and Saturn’s life. All the circumstances and events in those hours show that Jason never had any intent to kill or injure his wife,” she said. “His actions that day were reckless; they are not excuseable and he is not asking you to excuse his crime.”
What jurors must determine based on the evidence is whether that crime is far more serious than second-degree assault. Prosecutors said Thursday their case against Alleyne will show that his actions on Aug. 21, 2017, were purposeful and intentional, not simply reckless.
“This case is about the defendant chasing after his wife and striking her with a car, and not ending his pursuit until she was pinned underneath the car,” Assistant Merrimack County Attorney Meghan Hagaman said to open the trial.
Alleyne and his wife had been together that afternoon at Saturn’s sister’s house in Concord. Saturn was attempting to junk a Dodge Durango, but she couldn’t find the keys and Alleyne had grown agitated and threatened her, Hagaman said.
Saturn ultimately left the residence alone and drove to the Days Inn, where she decided to park out back in hopes that Alleyne would not find her. But he did, and he continued to be hostile, choosing to punch the car and rip off a side view mirror, Hagaman told jurors.
Later that afternoon, Saturn decided she was going to try to get away, but not without first picking up the couple’s three children. She first stopped to fuel up her car at the Circle K, but her husband had followed her there from the Days Inn. This time, Saturn attempted to walk away, but Alleyne wouldn’t have it and got behind the wheel of the car to chase her down, Hagaman said.
“You guys are going to see it. It’s all captured on video,” she told the jury. “There are still images that break it down frame by frame.”
The trial is expected to last seven days.
(Alyssa Dandrea can be reached at 369-3319, adandrea@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @_ADandrea.)