Marriott Trial: Psychic Sees Dead Body, Testifies on Personas, Sex

By Dan Tuohy/NH Patch 

A former psychic and friend of Seth Mazzaglia's has testified that she saw the body of Elizabeth "Lizzi" Marriott in his bedroom with two plastic grocery bags over her head.

Mazzaglia, the man on trial for the rape and murder of the 19-year-old University of New Hampshire student, appeared calm, according to Roberta Gerkin. She left the apartment in Dover, N.H., thinking the authorities would be called.

"We were convinced he was going to do the right thing," she said.

What unfolded the night of Oct. 9, 2012 was anything but. Mazzaglia, along with his then girlfriend Kat McDonough, wrapped the body in a tarp and drove to Peirce Island in Portsmouth, where the body was dumped into the tidal river, never to be found again, according to his arrest warrant.

Defense attorney Joachim Barth, who has already told jurors that McDonough was the one responsible for Marriott's death, continued to pick apart Gerkin's testimony in Strafford County Superior Court in Dover, N.H.

Gerkin testified earlier that Mazzaglia was the "dominating force" in his relationship with McDonough.

"The relationship seemed very much to be damsel in distress and rescuer," Gerkin said. And once McDonough was rescued, she was trying to stay in Mazzaglia's good graces, she said.

Barth asked her, "You have that power to predict future events?"

"That's one of those things I always gave as a disclaimer," she replied. "I do not predict the future. The future could change in five seconds and if you change where you're going."

Gerkin had testified that she once gave oral sex to Mazzaglia because he requested it, and that he if didn't get it his "wires" would get crossed. She says she took it at face value, a trivial act.

"At that particular point in my life," Gerkin said, "Sex was nothing. Sex was a release. Sex was going to get a Coke."

Barth moved for a mistrial earlier in the day May 30, based on Gerkin's testimony about Mazzaglia's multiple personas, including "Dark Heart," and his "Doomsday" threat of violence and death. Judge Steven Houran rejected that motion.

Prosecuting attorney Geoffrey Ward said Gerkin's testimony was in her deposition, and specifically included language that Mazzaglia would resort to violence if McDonough did not contact him.

The judge struck Ward's questioning of Gerkin, and her answer, specifically to that allegation that he would kill if McDonough didn't contact him. McDonough, who struck a plea deal last year, is expected to testify against Mazzaglia.

State v. Seth Mazzaglia enters its second week. The trial resumes June 2 at 9 a.m.