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Man charged with murder for running over wife with car
An NCO from Mountain Home AFB was charged with two counts of first-degree murder last week after he allegedly ran down and killed his pregnant wife on a rural road northeast of Tipanuk.
SSgt. Albert A. Ciccone, 27, of Mountain Home, was being held without bail at the Elmore County jail following the incident Thursday involving his estranged wife, Kathleen, 22, to whom he had been married for less than two months.
The Elmore County Sheriff's Office received a call at approximately 5:40 p.m. Thursday that they initially believed involved a woman who had fallen out of a vehicle and had been injured on Ditto Road.
But when deputies arrived at the scene they quickly realized "that something wasn't right," said Sheriff Rick Layher. Damage to the vehicle involved, a yellow 2003 turbocharged Dodge Neon, and the quick identification of a witness to the incident, convinced them they had a homicide on their hands.
Ciccone was found in the desert about a mile from the scene. Layher said he was "dazed, disoriented and confused" at the time. He was taken to the Elmore Medical Center Hospital for a brief examination and then jailed. Layher said he confessed during interrogation that night to striking his wife with his car.
Layher said the incident apparently began when the couple was returning from visiting a marriage counselor on base. Ciccone is an electronic warfare systems specialist with the Component Maintenance Squadron at Mountain Home AFB.
He and his wife, the former Kathleen Terry, a long-time resident of Mountain Home, had separated shortly after their marriage on Aug. 29 and she was living with her mother at a rural home near Tipanuk. Ciccone, who lived in town at 132 Baker Dr., was driving her home after the counseling session when they apparently got into an argument. It is believed the two got out of the car and sheriff's detectives said there was evidence of a scuffle at the edge of the road.
Mrs. Ciccone then apparently elected to walk away, heading toward a friend's house in the sparsley populated area, detectives believe.
Layher said Ciccone then allegedly turned his car around, sat there for "a minute or two," then gunned the engine and headed toward his wife, who was believed to be 11-weeks pregnant at the time.
In the 600-foot interval between the point where the car had been stopped and the point where Mrs. Ciccone was struck, he apparently reached speeds of 40-50 miles per hour, Layher said.
As he approached her, his wife apparently stepped off the road into a barrow pit in front of a rural home and Ciccone then allegedly drove into the barrow pit, striking her and causing her body to land 40-50 feet away in the front yard of the home, where a teenage girl who lived there witnessed the incident.
Almost immediately after allegedly striking his wife, Ciccone's car then struck a concrete mailbox stand, damaging the car heavily.
As the family at the farmhouse rushed to the victim in their yard, Ciccone got out of his car and began walking away. Layher said the family told him Mrs. Ciccone died within moments after they reached her.
Ironically, the ambulance crews responding to the initial report, came across Ciccone walking down Ditto Road and asked him for directions to the accident. It wasn't until later, at the scene, when deputies had determined it was not an accident, that they realized they had seen the suspect.
Layher said after he arrived at the scene that he quickly decided to call upon the Idaho State Police accident reconstruction team to help with the forensic evidence of the crime.
An ISP officer and an EMT, using binoculars, spotted Ciccone in the desert about a mile off the road about 45 minutes after the authorities had arrived on the scene, and he was arrested without incident.
The teenage witness to the alleged homicide was not identified by authorities, who said she was considerably shaken by what she had seen.
Layher said when Ciccone was taken to the hospital he asked for his medications. Although law enforcement officials have declined to comment, citing privacy laws, there have been numerous reports from those that knew him that Ciccone had received a psychiatric evaluation only a few weeks before and was being treated for severe depression.
Although Layher said there was a history of strained relations between the couple, who apparently had "argued quite a bit, recently," there were no reports on file that either city police or sheriff's deputies had ever responded to a domestic disturbance call while the couple lived together in Mountain Home. The only record Ciccone had was a ticket for speeding.
In addition to his military duties, Ciccone had worked as the DJ at Charlie's Place, a downtown bar, under contract to the DJ service Rock and Rooster.
Bruce Broadwine, the owner/manager at Charlie's, said the couple met at the establishment while Ciccone had worked there. He said he was shocked to learn what had happened, although he was aware the couple had been having problems. He described Ciccone as "a very personable man" who was popular with the clientele, and that Mrs. Ciccone was "a wonderful young woman, the kind of person who could light up a room just by walking in."
Sheriff's authorities said Monday that they were looking for some possible additional witnesses to the incident, and that anyone who may have been driving on Ditto Road or in the general area at the time who may have seen something, should contact the Sheriff's Department at 587-2100. Authorities also were seeking information from anyone who might have knowlege of the relationship between Ciccone and his wife, that might shed light on the circumstances leading to the fatal incident.
County Prosecutor Aaron Bazzoli said after hearing Ciccone's alleged confession and reviewing the physical and witness evidence he had decided to file first-degree murder charges in the case, noting that "if you have time to think about what you are doing" and have time to stop but don't, the law justifies the filing of pre-meditated murder charges.
Bazzoli contended the 600 feet Ciccone drove before allegedly striking his wife with his car was sufficient time for him to consider the implications of his action.
Bazzoli also said that under changes recently enacted in Idaho law, the circumstances allowed for the filing of charges relating to the death of the fetus Mrs. Ciccone was carrying at the time of the incident, which was the reason for the second murder charge.
With no judges in Elmore County at the time, a judge in Valley County was contacted by telephone, the appropriate documents were faxed to him, and Ciccone was ordered held without bond until a preliminary hearing can be held on Oct. 30. The Elmore County Public Defender's Office was appointed to represent him. The public defender's officer declined to issue a statement regarding the case when contacted Monday.
Sheriff Rick Layher offered his thanks for the assistance of the Idaho State Police, the airbase's Office of Special Investigation, and the county extrication unit, in helping his department handle the incident.
It was the third time in just over a year that Bazzoli has filed murder charges against someone.
Last August, a first-degree murder warrant was issued for Jorge Alberto Lopez Orozco on three counts of first-degree murder. He is alleged to have killed his girlfriend and two of her children, then set their bodies on fire in their car. He remains at large.
And last November, a Mountain Home grand jury indicted Larry Severson, 48, of Mountain Home, on charges that he killed his wife, Mary, on Feb. 15, 2002, by overdosing her with sleeping pills. His trial is set to begin Jan. 4.