Man Convicted of Killing Man in Newton Garage Wants Another Trial

In a murder-for-hire scenario, Scott Foxworth was convicted of shooting a Framingham man in the head in a Newton parking lot nine years ago, and sentenced to life in prison. Foxworth was convicted of carrying out the act that was coordinated by James Brescia, from Waltham, killing Ed Schiller.

MetroWest Daily News is reporting that Foxworth’s lawyers are looking to have his conviction overturned on the basis that a former cellmate shouldn’t have been allowed to testify.

Prosecutors argued that the cellmate, Thomas Hickey, shouldn’t have been allowed to testify and that he had been “gathering information on behalf of the state.”

Schiller was murdered on Friday, Jan. 13, 2006, while in his car as he arrived to work in Newton, reportedly because Brescia found out his wife had rekindled a relationship with Schiller. According to edschiller.com, Brescia was convicted of murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit murder on June 24, 2008. He was sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole. On June 29, Foxworth was convicted of murder in the first degree and conspiracy to commit murder, reported the Lowell Sun. He was also sentenced to life in prison.

Brescia, 53, was convicted of hiring Foxworth to kill Schiller, from Sudbury, when he arrived to his work in Newton in 2006. Brescia was granted a new trial after his lawyers confirmed that he had suffered a stroke on the first day of his murder trial in 2008.

Dateline NBC in November of 2009 featured the case, calling it The Friday the 13th Mystery, asking, “Who would have wanted to kill Ed Schiller?” The episode is available here.

ABC’s 20/20 also spotlighted the murder, which it said “captivated the city of Newton,” and focused on Stacey Rock, Brescia’s wife who had rekindled a relationship with her high school sweetheart, Schiller.