Updated 07/20/2006 10:21 PM
Jury sees e-mails between Christopher Porco and parents
Albany County Chief Assistant District Attorney Michael McDermott said, "Without the e-mails, it's difficult to put the motive aspect of this in context."
For the first time, jurors in the Christopher Porco trial saw e-mails between him and his now-deceased father Peter -- some quite angry over loans Christopher apparently took out after forging his dad's signature.
Assistant District Attorney David Rossi said, "Peter had been considering filing forgery affidavits against Chris and was urging Chris to come home that very weekend to confront him about the loans and how he was doing at college."
Defense Attorney Terence Kindlon said, "The fact is there are some cranky e-mails from Peter to his son at a time when he was upset with how his son was acting, and as a father who has had a son in college I can assure you that this is not unique to Peter Porco."
A friend of Christopher Porco's testified that Christopher knew where his parents' will was located in their Delmar home -- perhaps furthering the prosecution's claim Christopher thought he would gain money with his parents' deaths.
McDermott said, "When you account for their indebtedness and the death benefits, it would have come to about $1.1 million. But again, proving that Christopher knew, that is something I don't think we can establish. I don't think Christopher knew exactly how much his parents were worth."
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Kindlon said, "The fact of the matter is if you take all of the money -- the real money, the honest to goodness money -- from the estate and you make a pile of it, you're going to have $100,000. The rest of it is imaginary money. It's electronic money. It's pretend money."
Those amounts may never be heard though, because what Christopher really thought his parents were worth at any time is unclear. At one point prosecutors said Porco told a financial planner he would receive almost $3 million from his grandmother, which all agree wouldn't happen.
Rossi said, "We're not saying because Chris forged the documents he killed his parents. It's another piece of a very large puzzle."
Kindlon said, "Christopher was a heck of a lot better with his father alive than dead."
The jury will have to consider what the testimony means.