| Connecticut Post Newspaper Wednesday, March 21, 2007 By -Daniel Tepfer Witness testifies to fatal shooting of Toronto man Bridgeport - Marie Vargas had the look of a street warrior as she sat in the jury box in Superior Court Tuesday. There was a large purple scar under her left eye, and another scar split her right eyebrow. Large, silver-hoop earrings dangled from beneath her jet-black hair and around her tattoed throat hung a large gold cross. Across the courtroom at the defense table glared Miguel Zapata. But Vargas simply shrugged. Staring back at him, she feigned brushing something off her left shoulder. Vargas testified that she was there, on the East Side street, when Zoltan Kiss was riddled with bullets five years ago. She remembered Kiss, a tall, white Canadian, looking very out of place in that neighborhood.She said he was wearing too much jewelry to be there at that time of the morning. Vargas, the fifth witness called by Senior Assistant State's Attorney C. Robert Satti Jr.,said she readily admitted she had been on Pembroke Street in the early morning hours of Sept. 28, 2001, to buy drugs. "I smoked angel dust and I was a marijuanahead," she said matter of factly. On Pembroke Street near Jane Street, there was an alleyway blocked by a large locked gate. If you knocked on the gate and a lookout said you were OK, someone would let you in the alley to buy drugs, Vargas testified. Her knock that morning was answered by Michael Cooney, who replied through the gate, "the shop is closed," she said. But she continued that he eventually agreed to let her in to buy some marijuana. |
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