Richard Dalli, pictured here following a 2007 arrest, has been charged with murder in connection with the death of a Wells man.
Courtesy photo
YORK BEACH - The late-summer weather had been beautiful over the Labor Day holiday weekend; warm days, cool nights, as a small seaside town had begun its changeover from a bustling vacation spot to a quiet place where people know their neighbors and doors are left unlocked.
But all that came to an unsettling halt early Tuesday morning, Sept. 2, when a difficult man with a long history of troubled behavior turned an even darker corner, brutally murdering his houseguest, a long-time friend.
Neighbors, including year-round residents and summer vacationers, had heard shouting, then screams in the night and finally the sound of car, speeding away down the rough dirt road.
By daybreak, the house and the street in front had been sealed off, with local police standing, politely but firmly, at guard. And while much of the rest of the town busied itself with the first day of school, Rogers Road became the focal point for news media crews from throughout the state as wary neighbors poked their heads our their doors, shocked and troubled looks on their faces, trying to reconcile the bright, quiet sunshine of an early September morning in Maine with the grisly crime that had taken place on their street.
The York Police Department and Maine State Police were on the scene throughout the day on Tuesday, after local police received a call to the house at 3:30 a.m. reporting a stabbing. And, before the end of the day, local and state police had confirmed the details. Richard Dalli, 50, of 90 Rogers Road in York Beach was taken into custody at his home shortly after York police were called to the house.
According to Maine State Police Spokesman Steve McCausland, Dalli was questioned by state and local authorities at the York Police Department throughout the morning, and by early afternoon he had been charged with murder in connection with the stabbing death of John Wheeler, 39, of Wells.
Wheeler had been rushed by ambulance to York Hospital after the stabbing was reported. However, he died shortly after arrival. An autopsy by the Maine State Medical Examiner's Office showed he died of a stab wound to the chest.
According to police, Dalli, who worked for a local cleaning company, and Wheeler, who was a carpenter, had known each other for the past 10 years.
Few details are being released about the incident itself, as the investigation is ongoing.
York Police Chief Doug Bracy explained that there was a party of some sort earlier in the evening at the residence. One person was asleep at the time the stabbing occurred, and awoke to the sound of screaming, while another, who was staying in an outbuilding on the property, was also asleep when the incident occurred.
Police have said substances were present at the scene, but have not elaborated as to whether drugs or alcohol were a factor in the homicide.
Bracy confirmed after the murder charge was filed that Dalli is not a stranger to the York Police Department. In past years, he has faced charges including furnishing a place for minors to consume alcohol and criminal threatening, and police have been called to the residence numerous times for noise complaints.
Just last year, on April 4 of 2007, Dalli was charged with animal cruelty for killing a cat with a blunt object. He was fined $1,000 for the crime.
That incident happened just five weeks after his mother, who had lived at the Rogers Road home and was known as a woman who loved animals and dedicated her time to the community as a volunteer, passed away in York Hospital.
The Dalli homicide comes almost a decade after the last crimes of this magnitude known to have been committed in York.
Bracy confirmed that both of those cases, which occurred in January and July of 1999, also involved individuals who knew each other in cases where friends had gathered together at parties before the murders occurred.
"Unfortunately, it can and does happen here," Bracy said.
In more recent years, two cases occurred where bodies were found in town of individuals who resided in other states. The most recent of those cases, the Wendy Morello homicide, remains under investigation by multiple agencies, including police from Maine and Massachusetts.
Dalli has been taken to the York County Jail in Alfred and McCausland confirmed he was expected to make his first appearance in connection with the murder charge at York County Superior Court at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 3. No information on those proceedings was available at press time.
