The decision is a significant victory for Michelle Lodzinski's defense. Watch video
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves ruled that an Arizona man will be allowed to testify that someone other than Michelle Lodzinski may have killed her son in 1991.
The move is a victory for Lodinzski's defense in the death of 5-year-old Timothy Wiltsey. Her trial on a murder charge is slated to begin this week.
"I believe I'm obligated to allow Miss Lodzinski to have a complete defense," Nieves said. "This lady is charged with murder."
He added, "I'm not the fact finder. I'm the judge.
Damien Dowdle, of Arizona, testified that Bernard Joseph McShane, who he said molested him when he was a teenager, told him he tried to molest a 5-year-old boy at a big event in Atlanta in 1991, but strangled the boy after he began to cry and scream.
He realized later, after speaking to another inmate, it was probably Atlantic City in New Jersey because McShane spoke of boardwalks and casinos.
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/02/trial_set_to_begin_next_week_for_mom_charged_with.html
Dowdle testified he immediately told his attorney what McShane told him and an investigator followed up on it, but no missing or murdered child was found in Georgia.
But, he admitted during a hearing in January that he doesn't know if what McShane told him applies to the Wiltsey case.
"I still have a lot of questions," Dowdle said. "There are some things that exclude this case, like where the boy's body was found. It was five miles away."
http://www.nj.com/middlesex/index.ssf/2016/01/uncertain_witness_says_former_cellmate_could_have.html
Dowdle got out of prison in Arizona after serving 18 years for bank robbery and looked up murdered children online. He said he found the Wiltsey case and contacted Gerald Krovatin, Lodzinski's attorney.
The story he told is similar to one of several different statements that Lodzinski gave to police. She originally told police that she and Wiltsey went to a carnival in Sayreville the evening of May 25, 1991, and he disappeared when she went to a stand to buy soda.
His body was found 11 months later in a wooded area in Edison.
Lodzinski was charged with her son's murder in August 2014 and is awaiting trial. Jury began last month, but was put on hold. It resumes Wednesday morning.
Nieves also ruled that the defense can call a psychiatrist, Kenneth Weiss, who examined Lodzinski at the Middlesex County jail last month and is expected to testify that she was on the brink of a nervous break down in June of 1991 when she talked to police--and that was the reason she gave different statements to police about her son's disappearance.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.