GREENFIELD — A man who served nearly 10 years in prison after being convicted of manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and drunken driving in 2011 has been granted a new trial, with the judge who sentenced him now deciding the defendant was deprived of his constitutional right to effective legal counsel.

Daniel P. Tompkins, who was last known to reside in Orange, was sentenced to eight to 12 years in prison following a four-day trial in Franklin County Superior Court in 2011. Judge John Agostini ruled that Tompkins had caused the SUV crash that killed Heather Buffum, 21, and Melissa Duff, 25, in Bernardston in June 2007. Tompkins had testified that he was not driving at the time of the crash but that Jeffrey Blake was, a claim Agostini had called “ludicrous.”

However, in a memorandum handed down on July 27, Agostini stated he was vacating Tompkins’ convictions and ordering a new trial.

“The defendant may well have been the driver, or he may well be factually innocent,” the judge wrote. “Either way, I am left with uncertainty that the defendant’s guilt has been fairly adjudicated.”

Tompkins was released from prison on July 22, 2020. Now 46, he would have his conviction overturned if found not guilty in a new trial.

Paul Rudof, who six years ago was appointed to represent Tompkins, said this would make it much easier for his client to get employment and necessary services.

“It’s not easy to live your life with criminal convictions,” said Rudof, who is joined by attorney Ines McGillion in representing Tompkins.

Tompkins was represented by attorney Daniel M. Kelly in 2011.

Rudof also said his client’s driver’s license was suspended for a minimum of 15 years, starting at the date of conviction, and if found not guilty in a new trial, he could get it back.

“Dan Tompkins was in prison for nine years and 38 days for a crime that he didn’t commit. And since day one, he has always proclaimed his innocence and he has tried very hard to undo his wrongful conviction,” Rudof said in an interview. “We are deeply appreciative that Judge Agostini has recognized that justice was not done at Dan’s trial. I think it’s really worth noting that while Judge Agostini’s decision was clearly correct, it was also very brave. Judge Agostini was the person who found Dan guilty and sent him to prison.”

First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne, who prosecuted Tompkins’ case 12 years ago and will continue handling this case, said the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office within an hour of receiving Agostini’s memorandum filed a notice of appeal with the hope of persuading the Massachusetts Appeals Court to overturn the judge’s decision and reinstate Tompkins’ convictions.

“The commonwealth is obviously very disappointed in this decision,” Gagne said. “We feel particularly heartbroken for the families of Melissa Duff and Heather Buffum, both of whom lost their lives in this tragic crash, as well as Jeffrey Blake, who was the surviving victim [in] the vehicle.”

Neither Rudof nor Gagne said they know when a new trial will begin.

In September 2022, Agostini presided over a roughly 3½-hour motion hearing for the new trial, in which Rudof and McGillion called to the witness stand Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, president of the independent consulting firm Forensic Pathology & Legal Medicine in Rhode Island. In later court sessions, Agostini heard testimony from Paul Kish, a forensic consultant providing services in bloodstain patterns and crime scene reconstruction, and Dr. Jacob L. Fisher, who specializes in human injury biomechanics. Fisher testified on behalf of the state.

Rudof said he hopes the DA’s office “has the same fortitude and wisdom and humility as Judge Agostini, and that they take a hard second look at this case before going forward with another prosecution of an innocent man.”

Crash

In his memorandum, Agostini wrote that the events leading up to the fatal crash began on June 20, 2007, when Tompkins, Duff, Buffum and Blake drank together at several bars in Greenfield. The four also visited two liquor stores, including one in New Hampshire, where they purchased a 20-pack of beer. They later consumed some of that beer at a Connecticut River boat launch in Northfield, where a witness later reported seeing Blake standing on the driver’s side of the vehicle, a 2001 Ford Expedition registered to Tompkins, talking to one of the women. This witness observed both men and noted that neither exhibited obvious signs of intoxication. Another witness at the boat ramp saw two women in the SUV’s back seat just before it drove away. The four were reportedly headed to Buffum’s apartment at approximately 8:20 p.m. when the vehicle crashed into a guardrail on the eastern side of South Street in Bernardston, shortly after leaving the boat ramp.

Blake later claimed that during this journey, the seating was the same as it had been all day — with Tompkins driving, Duff in the front passenger seat, Blake behind Tompkins, and Buffum behind Duff. Blake had never had a driver’s license.

The vehicle’s speed was reportedly about 87 mph in a 35-mph zone. State Trooper Sgt. Eino Thompson Jr. determined that the vehicle, while attempting to negotiate a moderate left-hand curve, began side-slipping and rotating in a counterclockwise manner. The vehicle reportedly went off the western side of the roadway onto the shoulder and continued in its counterclockwise rotation before returning to the road surface. As the SUV crossed the road, heading for the eastern side of the roadway, the driver applied aggressive steering and braking, causing the Expedition to rotate in a clockwise manner. The vehicle left the road surface and hit a set of guardrails.

Adjacent to the guardrails is a shoulder that slopes downward, creating a 7-foot embankment leading to a railroad bed and tracks that are approximately 50 feet from the roadway’s eastern side. After striking the guardrails and going over the embankment, the SUV became airborne and started flipping as it struck several smaller trees. It landed on the railroad tracks and rolled multiple times up a dirt embankment, coming to rest on its tires.

Police and EMTs arrived and reportedly found Tompkins and Buffum together laying beyond the train tracks, with Duff near them. Blake was reportedly found resting on the vehicle’s rear bumper.

Tompkins told State Police in the hospital that he didn’t believe he was driving at the time of the crash and Duff may have been operating the vehicle, as she had in the past. At the end of that conversation, Tompkins indicated that Duff was in the driver’s seat, with Buffum in the front passenger seat, Tompkins behind Duff, and Blake behind Buffum. At the time of trial, Tompkins testified that his memory returned two to three weeks after the crash and that Blake was driving the vehicle after the four left the boat ramp. Tompkins indicated he asked Duff to drive but she declined, and that Blake produced a learner’s permit and offered to drive. Tompkins said that Blake did not seem too intoxicated.

Witnesses included two people who testified that Blake had admitted to being the driver and had shown them a steering-wheel-shaped bruise on his chest. Another witness testified to having seen the curved bruise on Blake’s upper chest that summer.

Agostini wrote that there were stains of Blake’s blood, identified by DNA testing, in the map pocket of the driver’s side door, on the driver’s side door near the floor, in the center of the steering wheel, on the center console of the front edge, and on the dashboard between the two front seats. Defense counsel repeatedly referenced this evidence as proving that Blake was the driver, while the prosecution asserted that the crash’s violent nature with flips and rollovers negates such a finding. Kelly, Tompkins’ initial attorney, reportedly did not consult with a blood spatter expert “because the only blood found around the driver’s seat belonged to Blake and this was sufficient to persuade a factfinder as to who was driving the vehicle.”

“The affidavit also indicated that Attorney Kelly did not consult a medical expert regarding injuries sustained by Blake and any relationship with his position in the vehicle at the time of the accident,” Agostini wrote. “Attorney Kelly was also satisfied with the testimony of three defense witnesses that identified bruising on Blake’s chest and the inference that such injuries were caused by impact with the steering wheel. Attorney Kelly refused to sign an affidavit to support the motion for a new trial.”

Kelly could not be reached for comment.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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