April Kauffman thought she finally would get her husband to grant her a divorce, her best friend testified Wednesday.
The local veterans advocate had wanted to part with Dr. James Kauffman for some time, Lee Darby and sister-in-law Julia Loftus said.
The women took the stand Wednesday in the murder trial of Ferdinand "Freddy" Augello in what was less than a half-day of testimony, due to scheduling issues with witnesses.
Since Dr. Kauffman's death in an apparent suicide in January, Augello is the only person charged in the May 10, 2012 killing. But he was not mentioned in any of the day's testimony.
Instead, Sgt. Ian Finnimore took jurors to the murder scene through testimony and pictures that showed the slain radio host lying dead, facedown on the floor of her bedroom inside the Linwood home she and the doctor had shared after more than a decade of marriage.
There was some blood near the top of the bed, but little seemed disturbed in the room. Bottles of water and lotion were on their sides, the only indication anything had been disturbed there.
Darby said when her friend received the Governor’s Award in May 2012, she told Darby “she’d recently come in to some other information on financial things” that would make Kauffman finally grant her a divorce she had long sought.
She also had learned that her husband — who presented himself as a Vietnam veteran — had not served in the military at all.
"So it was particularly awkward that her husband would have lied about his military service?” defense attorney Mary Linehan asked her.
“Very,” Darby replied.
Both Loftus and Darby testified that Kauffman had threatened to kill his wife before she would give her "half his empire" in a divorce.
Loftus was asked if she ever gave her friend advice about the divorce.
“Regrettably so, I did," she said.
The couple had been married about 8½ years. Loftus told April Kauffman to talk to a lawyer but that she thought the marriage had to last 10 years to have her provided for. Their 10th anniversary was Feb. 14, 2012, three months before the killing.
While previous testimony said the front door was left unlocked the morning of the killing, the women said the doctor was known for making sure the home was secured.
They called him "Perimeter Pete" as a result of his regular checks of all the doors and outside the home, insisting people come in and out through the garage.
Testimony will resume Thursday with the pathologist and final former co-defendant Cheryl Pizza.
