Defense to seek lower bond for Charles Buck

 The attorneys for accused murderer Charles F. Buck are seeking a bond reduction for their client based on a pathologist’s opinion that Buck’s wife, Leslie, died of a heart condition rather than a head injury.

In a document filed late today in Superior Court, attorneys Hubert Santos and Hope Seeley seek a reduction of Buck’s $2.5 million bond based on the opinion of Steven Evans Downing, a Yale University doctor who specializes in cardiac pathology. The state sent slides of Mrs. Buck’s heart to the doctor in preparation for Buck’s trial, which is scheduled to begin this month. Downing opined that Mrs. Buck died of lymphocytic myocarditis, a condition that had been noted during her autopsy.

Buck, 63, was charged with murder in 2009, seven years after he reported finding his unresponsive wife at the bottom of a staircase. The state alleges Buck inflicted a fatal blow to his wife’s head and that the cause of death was a subdural hematoma. The state Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has never deemed the case a homicide, but police and prosecutors assert that Buck killed his schoolteacher wife in the midst of his obsession about a younger woman. Buck’s attorneys have maintained that Mrs. Buck died of natural causes and that the state’s case is weak.

 “In light of this newly disclosed opinion, there are reasonable grounds to believe that this case does not involve a homicide,” says the motion, which Santos or Seeley will argue tomorrow afternoon in New London Superior Court.

Supervisory Assistant State’s Attorney Lawrence J. Tytla, who could not immediately be reached for comment, is expected to continue asserting that Buck killed his wife.