...And Never Let HerGo

family in a civil case. The amount of the suit—a minimum of $100,000—doesn’t matter to them. “No one in the Capano family ever apologized or said they were sorry to us,” Robert said. “Tom’s lawyers never apologized to us or acknowledged us.” The Faheys are very resentful of those Capanos who knew where Anne Marie was and “sat there for a year and a half and said not one word.”
    The suit against Capano Management Company, Louis Capano and Associates, Inc., Brandywine Plaza III Associates L.P., and Landmark Motels charges the four Capano brothers individually with myriad offenses ranging from conspiracy to murder. It was delayed pending the outcome of Tom’s criminal trial.
    Kathleen and Brian have become active in supporting the rights of crime victims. The two spoke at the twelfth annual Crime Victims’ Rights Week seminar in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in April.
    Kim Horstman is married and gave birth to a daughter in the summer of 1998. The baby girl’s name is Anne Marie.
    Ferris Wharton spent his summer vacation riding his bike across Iowa, which was just as hot as Wilmington. He awaits the inevitable, another murder case to prosecute.
    Colm Connolly surprised those who expected him to stay with the U.S. Attorney’s office by resigning in late March. He has since joined the Wilmington law firm of Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell as partner. The firm’s clients include U.S. Steel, J. P. Morgan, and Coca-Cola. He admitted that it was a pragmatic decision. He and his wife, Anne, had their first daughter, “Maggie,” on September 3, 1999. A man with four children under five has finally had to leave public service for the better salary available in the private sector. At least for now.
    Bob Donovan is still with the Wilmington Police Department.
    Eric Alpert is assigned currently to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.
    Colm, Ferris, Eric, Bob, and Ron Poplos traveled to New York to see the Yankees play in July; it was the closest thing to a celebration they had after Tom Capano’s conviction.
    Tom’s “dream team” of lawyers, whose advice he ignored, will not represent him as he appeals his death sentence from the maximum security unit at the Delaware Correctional Center in Smyrna. Oteri and O’Donnell have gone back to their practices in Boston and Florida, and Maurer and Oberly have other work to handle. Lee Ramunno—Tom’s sister, Marian’s, husband—will handle the appeal. The appeal process can be tortuous and lengthy, and it is unlikely that Tom will actually face death for several years. However, since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed states to bring back the death penalty, Delaware’s Board of Pardons has never recommended that any death penalty sentence be reversed.
    But even at this late date, Tom Capano could conceivably avoid the death penalty. It would mean letting go of his arrogance and hispride. If he were to admit to killing Anne Marie and disposing of her body to avoid the detection of his crime, and if he signed an agreement that he would not appeal a reduced sentence, some attorneys close to the case think he might live to spend his life in prison.
    For his daughters, whom he professes to love above all else, would he surrender his pride?
    In what could one day become a convoluted legal question, Judge William Swain Lee is seriously considering running for the governorship of Delaware. If he should win the election and be the sitting governor when Tom Capano reaches the end of the appeal process to avoid execution—save for a pardon by the top executive in Delaware—what would “Governor William Swain Lee” do? Could he step aside? And if he did, would the decision be made by another elected official who wasn’t somehow connected to Tom in his earlier incarnation as a politician popular with both Democrats and Republicans in Delaware?
    Keith Brady still works for the Delaware State Attorney General’s office, but he has been transferred to the civil division.
    Gerry and Louie Capano were sentenced on the charges they agreed to when they finally told the federal investigators what they knew about Anne Marie’s death.
    Gerry had to spend an hour in a jail cell in the federal courthouse before he came to the courtroom, handcuffed, for sentencing. A U.S. district judge, Sue L. Robinson, accepted his guilty plea to illegal possession of firearms by a drug user, and sentenced him to time served and three years of supervised release. He was prohibited from