Man pleads innocent in death
of ex-girlfriend
By WILLIAM FOSHER
GREENFIELD His hands handcuffed and heavily bandaged, a 23-year-old Amherst man pleaded innocent yesterday to charges he stabbed his former girlfriend, set fire to her house and left her to die Saturday night.
James R. Cyr Jr. was ordered held without right to bail at his arraignment in Greenfield District Court on murder, arson, assault and other charges.
The body of Tara Hartnett, 21, was found by firefighters inside the charred ruins of a rear bedroom inside a house she shared with five housemates at 679 Amherst Road in Sunderland.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the victim's family said custody of the couple's 11-month-old daughter, Meghan, was awarded yesterday to the victim's parents. Hampshire County Probate Court officials confirmed that a hearing on the case had been held in Springfield.
Reached at home in South Boston yesterday, Hartnett's family declined to discuss their daughter's death or her relationship with Cyr.
Police said that Hartnett and Cyr were in a custody battle over their daughter, and while First Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel couldn't confirm that specifically, she said they had been before Hampshire County Probate Court on Friday.
The custody decision yesterday reverses the provisions of a restraining order issued Feb. 13 awarding custody of the child to Cyr.
The baby was with Cyr's parents, with whom he lives, at the time of the fire. Hartnett's five housemates were away on spring break from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
Scheibel said Cyr was arrested at The Cooley Dickinson Hospital emergency room Sunday morning, where he was taken for treatment for cuts to his hands.
“While he was there, it was noted that his hair was singed and his clothing smelled of smoke and soot,” she said.
Cyr, of 292 Puffton Village, Amherst, appeared in court with both hands heavily bandaged, and he frequently covered his face with them as he sat across the courtroom from a battery of television and newspaper photographers.
State police Lt. Thomas Soutier said yesterday that the autopsy showed that Hartnett died from “severe smoke and soot inhalation” meaning that she died in the fire, and not as a result of the stabbing. Soutier said there were “multiple stab wounds.”
When he was first questioned by officials at the hospital, Cyr explained his injuries by saying he had been stabbed while stopped at a traffic light on North Pleasant Street in Amherst, but had managed to escape his assailant by speeding off through a red light.
He repeated the story under questioning by state police Trooper Kevin Murphy. In an affidavit for a warrant to search the car Cyr was driving, Murphy states that Cyr explained his singed hair and soot on his clothing as the result of an accident involving his kitchen stove.
In District Court yesterday, Cyr was represented by Springfield lawyer Richard Rubin. Rubin did not object to Scheibel's request that Cyr be held without right to bail, but he asked that the order be entered without prejudice, so that he could return at a later date to seek a reduction.
Greenfield District Court Judge Thomas Merrigan allowed that request, and set a pretrial conference for April 2 on the case.
Before he was arraigned, Cyr was examined by a court-appointed psychiatrist and found to be competent to stand trial and passed a criminal responsibility evaluation.
Soutier said a knife that police believe was used to inflict the wounds was recovered from the scene.
Murphy's request for the search warrant on Cyr's car goes into detail about how police connected Cyr to the scene of the crime. According to that document, a woman on East Plum Tree Road, about two-tenths of a mile from the house where Hartnett died, reported seeing a car matching the description of a car registered to Cyr's mother, parked near her driveway.
A trail of blood led from Hartnett's house to the spot where that car had been parked, Murphy states in the affidavit.
Murphy also said that he interviewed Cyr's father, James R. Cyr Sr., at the hospital. Cyr Sr. told him that his son and Hartnett had been involved in a custody battle over their daughter. Cyr Sr. told Murphy that custody of the child had been with Cyr Sr. and his wife, Aliyak, and that Hartnett had daily visits with the child.
Cyr Sr. said he had taken the girl to visit her mother Saturday morning and picked her up Saturday afternoon, and all appeared to be well.
He said his son is not allowed to deliver or pick up the child because there was a restraining order in effect, directing him to stay away from Hartnett and her home.
Cyr Sr. said his son had been out from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday night in his mother's car and when he returned, he was bleeding profusely from his hands. Cyr Sr. said he took his son to the hospital.
Murphy said Cyr Sr. refused to elaborate on what conversations he had with his son, but he called the Northampton Police to ask that an officer be sent to the hospital to talk to him about murder.
Although the man who called the police refused to give his name, he said the murder involved “his son,” and Murphy said in his affidavit that he recognized the voice on the tape as that of Cyr Sr.
The Northampton Police sent an officer to talk to Cyr Sr., who said they should check on Hartnett's well-being. He said he was afraid his son had done something “awful” to her.
Courtesy of Springfield Union-News 1993
