Trial Ordered In Death Of Billiards Player
PITTSFIELD TWP. (WWJ/AP) - A man accused of killing a competitive billiards player from the Ann Arbor area has been ordered to trial after a judge watched a videotaped confession.
AnnArbor.com reports that the confession was played in court Friday. Forty-four-year-old Gregory Noack confessed to killing Dawn Fital in their Pittsfield Township apartment last June.
Noack told police that he snapped after 45-year-old Fital refused to have sex. He said they had reconciled after she had broken up with him days earlier in a phone call from a Las Vegas billiards tournament.
The day after Fital was reported missing, police arrested Noack behind a bank in Merrillville, Ind. Two days after his arrest, he led police to Fital's body, which was found stuffed in a suitcase submerged in a retention pond behind a Toys 'R' Us store in Hobart, Ind., on June 16.
An autopsy by the Lake County coroner's office found that Fital died from asphyxiation, and ruled her death an apparent homicide.
Although Noack confessed to the murder numerous times, defense attorney Christopher Renna claims Noack's right to remain silent was violated. Renna said officers violated Noack's Miranda rights when they continued to ask questions after Noack stated he didn't want to talk to them any more.
In addition to the charges of open murder and felony murder, Noack faces charges of kidnapping with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, unlawful imprisonment with intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, tampering with evidence, unlawfully driving away in a motor vehicle and larceny from a building.
If convicted, Noack faces life in prison. He is currently being held without bond in the Washtenaw County Jail. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for Dec. 8.
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