David Chalue Triple Murder Case: Trial, Sentence, and Appeals

David T. Chalue is a Massachusetts man serving three consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for his role in the August 2011 kidnapping and murder of three men in Pittsfield, in what became known as the David Chalue triple murder case. Prosecutors proved that Chalue, alongside Hells Angels member Adam Lee Hall and a third man, Caius Veiovis, killed David Glasser, Edward Frampton, and Robert Chadwell to prevent Glasser from testifying against Hall in pending criminal cases. Chalue was convicted in May 2014 in Hampden Superior Court and is currently held at New Jersey State Prison in Trenton under an interstate transfer agreement.¹

Why the Three Men Were Killed

The killings grew out of a long-running conflict between David Glasser and Adam Lee Hall, a ranking member of a western Massachusetts chapter of the Hells Angels. In July 2009, Hall lured Glasser to his home in Peru, Massachusetts, beat him with a baseball bat over an accusation of stolen car parts, and forced him to sign over a truck title, threatening to “put two bullets in his head” if he went to police. Glasser reported the attack anyway, and the Berkshire County Drug Task Force arrested Hall on drug, gun, and assault charges.²

Glasser was the key witness in those pending cases. In August 2010, Hall enlisted his girlfriend, Nicole Brooks, to frame Glasser for a fake armed robbery in New York, driving her to a rural area and firing a gun into a tree to create physical evidence. The scheme collapsed when police found a receipt in Brooks’s wallet that contradicted her story, and the accomplices confessed. Hall and two others were indicted for the phony robbery in November 2010.³

After the framing failed, Hall told Brooks he would have to make Glasser “disappear.” On August 26, 2011, the day before the murders, Hall was overheard saying, “I ought to kill that motherfucker for ruining my life.”⁴

Frampton and Chadwell had no role in the legal dispute. Frampton was Glasser’s roommate; Chadwell was visiting the apartment that night. Prosecutors said they were killed “simply so there would be no witnesses.” Hall later described Chadwell as “collateral damage,” saying he had “picked a bad night to work on the computer.” A judge noted that Glasser had a mental disability that made him “particularly vulnerable.”⁵⁴

The Night of the Killings

In the weeks before the murders, Hall began spending time with Chalue and Caius Veiovis. Hall identified Chalue to an associate as a member of the Aryan Brotherhood and said gaining entry to the gang required committing a murder. He described Veiovis as “a sadistic psycho.”⁴

On the night of August 27, 2011, the three men cleaned firearms at Veiovis’s apartment, then drove to the Linden Street apartment in Pittsfield where Glasser and Frampton lived. They abducted all three occupants. Testimony at trial placed the victims first at a property belonging to David Casey in New York, then at one of Hall’s properties. Hall’s gun misfired during the killings. One victim fled naked into the woods, was chased down, and was shot. Hall also stabbed one of the victims. The three men then dismembered the bodies, cutting off heads, arms, and legs and severing two of the torsos, and placed the remains in plastic bags.⁴

A fourth participant, David Casey, used an excavator to dig a trench on private property in Becket, Massachusetts, where the bags were buried. On September 10, 2011, roughly two weeks after the men disappeared, investigators found the burial site and recovered the dismembered remains.⁶ Hall, Chalue, and Veiovis were arrested the following day and arraigned on September 12, 2011, on charges of murder, kidnapping, and intimidating a witness.⁷

Chalue’s Trial

The three defendants were tried separately, and the venue for all three trials was moved from Berkshire County to Hampden Superior Court in Springfield because of extensive pretrial publicity. Chalue’s trial ran from April 22 to May 16, 2014, before Judge C. Jeffrey Kinder. Berkshire County District Attorney David Capeless led the prosecution; Chalue was represented by defense attorney Donald Frank.⁸

The prosecution’s case against Chalue was largely circumstantial and leaned heavily on two jailhouse informants who said Chalue had confessed while incarcerated at Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center.⁹

The Informant Testimony

Jethro Kempton, serving a sentence for armed robbery, testified that Chalue described the kidnapping and killings in a “joking manner.” Kempton said Chalue told him the group knocked on the door of the victims’ apartment, chased down a victim who fled naked into the woods, and let the bodies sit afterward so the blood would coagulate before dismemberment. Chalue referred to Hall as a “Big Dummy” and said he had been using Hall to gain access to firearms. Kempton acknowledged on the stand that he had contacted prosecutors after being denied parole and hoped his cooperation would help his own case.¹⁰¹¹

Jeffrey Cashman, serving fifteen years for armed robbery, testified that Chalue shared discovery documents with him labeled as a “novel” and included a note about “rats” and instructions on “making your bones” to prove loyalty to the Aryan Brotherhood. Cashman said Chalue told him the group “beat the victims, tortured them, killed them and cut them up.” On cross-examination, Cashman conceded that some of what he knew came from reading Chalue’s discovery materials rather than from Chalue directly. The defense also introduced records showing Cashman had a history of treatment for depression and anxiety, including auditory and visual hallucinations.¹¹

To counter the informants, the defense called Christina Pellegrino, who testified that details about the dismemberment had been circulating on public blogs as early as September 2011, suggesting the informants could have picked up specifics from other sources.¹¹

At a pretrial hearing, Chalue denied ever admitting to the murders. He acknowledged being a member of the Aryan Brotherhood only after Judge Kinder ordered him to answer, and he admitted writing the “making your bones” note to Cashman but claimed the note had no violent meaning.¹²

Verdict and Sentence

After roughly 30 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Chalue on nine counts: three counts each of murder, witness intimidation, and kidnapping. On May 19, 2014, Judge Kinder sentenced him to three consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.⁸

Appeals and the Federal Habeas Petition

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed Chalue’s convictions on February 23, 2021, finding no grounds to overturn the verdict under the state statute governing review of first-degree murder convictions.¹⁰

Chalue then filed a federal habeas corpus petition in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on February 6, 2023. He raised three claims:

Jury coercion, based on a sidebar instruction the trial judge gave to a lone holdout juror and then to the full jury about reaching a unanimous verdict.
Prejudicial evidence, challenging the admission of material about the Aryan Brotherhood, a codefendant’s weapons, and anatomical drawings of dismembered bodies.
Prosecutorial misconduct, alleging misstatements of evidence and emotional appeals during opening statements and closing summation.

On March 24, 2025, Judge Margaret R. Guzman dismissed the petition. The court acknowledged that the trial judge’s sidebar exchange with the holdout juror had been “erroneous” but concluded there was no proof it altered the final verdict, noting the jury continued deliberating for a lengthy period afterward. The admission of a photo of a weapon not used in the murders had, the court found, “no effect on the outcome of the trial.” The prosecutorial misconduct claim was deemed “unfounded.” Judge Guzman also declined to issue a certificate of appealability, effectively blocking further federal review of these claims.¹³¹

The Other Men Involved

Adam Lee Hall, the Hells Angels member who prosecutors said engineered the conspiracy, was convicted on February 7, 2014. He was originally sentenced to five consecutive life terms, later reduced to four when the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court vacated one kidnapping conviction.⁵

Caius Veiovis, born Roy Gutfinski Jr., was convicted in September 2014 of three counts each of murder, kidnapping, and witness intimidation and sentenced to life without parole. On hearing the verdict, he told the jurors, “I will see you all in hell.” The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed his convictions in 2017. As of early 2025, Veiovis was pursuing a new trial with representation from the Boston College Innocence Program, with oral arguments placed on hold by a Berkshire Superior Court judge.¹⁴¹⁵

David Casey, the excavator operator who buried the remains, was charged as an accessory after the fact. On December 8, 2014, he pleaded guilty in Hampden Superior Court to three counts each of accessory after the fact of murder, kidnapping, and witness intimidation. His sentence of two to two-and-a-half years amounted to time served because of pretrial detention, and he was released under the protection of authorities.¹⁶

1
GovInfo. Chalue v. Royce, No. 3:22-cv-30030
2
Berkshire Eagle. Timeline in the Adam Lee Hall Triple Murder Case
3
Berkshire Eagle. Adam Hall Trial: Lovers Testify About Plot to Frame David Glasser
4
FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Hall
5
WCVB. Mass. Man Gets 3 Life Terms in Triple Slaying
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Berkshire Eagle. Trial for Men Accused in Pittsfield Triple Murder May Be Year Away
7
Boston.com. Three Men Including Hells Angel Member Charged in Triple Murder to Silence Witness
8
WAMC. Chalue Sentenced to Life in Prison in Killings of Three Pittsfield Men
9
WAMC. MA Court Denies New Trial in Berkshire Triple Murder
10
FindLaw. Commonwealth v. Chalue
11
MassLive. Testimony Is Done in Berkshire Triple Murder Trial
12
Berkshire Eagle. Chalue Denies Admitting to Murder at Pretrial Hearing
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Berkshire District Attorney. United States District Court Dismisses David Chalue’s Habeas Corpus Petition
14
Bangor Daily News. Man With Horn Implants Convicted of Massachusetts Triple Murder Has Criminal Record in Maine
15
Berkshire Eagle. Caius Veiovis Triple Murder New Trial
16
MassLive. David Casey Pleads Guilty to Accessory Charges