On the first day of Ellen Wink's murder trial, the jury saw video secretly recorded by her tenant that ended up capturing his own death. Kurt Lametta was rolling on Jan. 20, 2022, when Wink, his landlord, let herself into the home at 16 Nelson Ave. to clean out the refrigerator because she wanted to put the home on the market.
“That's ridiculous. Every day you're going to come in and throw people's stuff away?” Lametta said on the footage.
A few seconds later, two shots rang out.
“You, bastard!” Wink said, before firing three more shots.
Lametta appeared to fall to the ground, dropping his phone. The video temporarily went black but recorded Wink shouting obscenities at Lametta and yelling at him to “Get out!”
A few seconds later, Wink picked up Lametta’s phone and walked out of the home, appearing to toss it in a nearby shrub.
That footage is expected to be the key piece of evidence in the prosecution’s case against Wink. It was played for jurors at Stamford Superior Court late Tuesday.
The trial began with Detective Brian Barrett, who was a patrol officer with Norwalk police at the time of the shooting. Barrett testified he was the first officer to arrive on scene after dispatch sent him to the address for a verbal disturbance. Barrett’s body camera footage showed he found something very different when he looked through the front door’s glass pane.
“I saw a white male, heavy set, a large amount of blood around him,” Barrett testified, adding he wasn’t moving.
Barrett told the court Wink walked out of the home next door and admitted she’d shot her tenant five times. The interaction, recorded by Barrett’s body camera and played for the jury, showed a very cooperative Wink.
“She was calm speaking,” Barrett said on the stand. “Then she said, ‘Kurt Lametta, he's my tenant. He's [expletive] driving me nuts.’”
On cross examination, Wink’s attorney, Stephan Seeger, focused on his client's cooperation and pointed out she willingly offered up accurate information to police.
“Is she hiding anything at that point?” Seeger asked.
"Not that I know of," Barrett responded.
“You ask the questions, she gives you the answers, correct?” said Seeger.
“Yes,” replied Barrett.
Wink isn't denying she pulled the trigger and killed Lametta. What the jury must decide is whether it was murder.
Seeger has thrown out three possible defenses he may use at trial. Initially, Seeger said it was a self-defense case since Wink told police she fired because Lametta came at her. But in recent months, Seeger introduced two other possible defenses—extreme emotional disturbance and mental disease or defect. It's unclear which he will present at trial.
The prosecution, meanwhile, will try to convince the jury that Wink and Lametta’s contentious relationship led her to commit murder. The two had a history of issues after Lametta allegedly stopped paying rent in September 2020, and Wink wanted him out.
To back up that motive, Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Michelle Manning filed a motion to join Wink’s murder trial with her prior criminal lockout case. The judge granted that request, meaning the jury will hear about Wink's arrest in September 2021 after she allegedly changed the locks on the house and threw out Lametta’s belongings. Manning previously said the state also plans to introduce other incidents that took place between Wink and Lametta where police were called, but no one was arrested.
Wink was the city’s Republican deputy registrar at the time of the shooting and was fired shortly after.
Seven women and five men were selected to sit on the jury in this trial. Four alternates were also chosen. The trial is expected to wrap up the week of June 16.