WEST DES MOINES- One year after being found not guilty of murdering his wife, Alex Fazzino sat down to talk about the turmoil of trial and what life is like moving forward.
Alex Fazzino has only been back to Iowa one time since his February 2016 trial. It’s not a place he views as home anymore.
“There’s no normal ever since Emily passed. You know, it’s just routine taking care of the kids, going to work, repeat, repeat, repeat,” said Fazzino.
Fazzino has been a single father of two boys and one girl for more than five years now.
On January 29, 2012, at their home in Boone, Fazzino was watching a movie with his kids in the basement when he heard water running from an upstairs bathroom. His 32-year-old wife, Emily, had went up to take her routine bath and listen to music.
Fazzino found her floating, lifeless, in the bathtub and immediately dialed 911.
“It was, what’s the word to use? It was hard to describe….. it was surreal,” said Fazzino.
In the 911 call, you hear Fazzino describe his wife’s condition, while pulling her body from the tub. He attempted CPR until paramedics arrived. Emily was pronounced dead a short time later.
Life became more surreal for Fazzino when he had a knock on his door in April of 2013, more than one year after Emily’s death.
“It was shocking, it was very very shocking,” said Fazzino.
Officers told Fazzino they were charging him with first degree murder in Emily’s death.
“I told my kids I’d be gone for 15 minutes. I said I would go to exchange something for my middle son and I didn’t come back for 3 weeks. I was ripped from them and it was excruciating,” said Fazzino.
The next three years were a downward spiral of hearings and moving back to Lee’s Summit, Missouri.
“It didn’t seem possible, didn’t seem possible that I could be convicted of a crime that didn’t happen,” said Fazzino.
As the trial approached, dates were set and a high-dollar, expert witness was thrown from the trial.
The trial was delayed four times over the course of three years and for a fourth time in February of 2015. The Fazzino’s only daughter, Coco, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant, a strenuous procedure that her father wanted desperately to attend.
“It was hard, she’s so much like her mom. We spent around nine, we spent nearly nine months in the hospital,” said Fazzino.
Finally on February 22, 2016, 190 miles away in Winneshiek County, it was time for Fazzino to stand trial for his wife’s murder. The jury was made up of eight men and four women and the trial was off to a fiery start.
“Then the inevitable question was, “When are you coming back?” I had to look at my kids, who were present at this conversation, and say I don’t know if I’m coming back. They started crying. We just put our faith in the system, which for it to get to this point, to a trial, my faith in it was waning,” said Fazzino.
The first week, the prosecution brought more than twenty witnesses to the stand, including local police, family, doctors and medical examiners. The 911 call was replayed and body camera footage showed the scene first-hand.
“It feels exactly how anyone watching would imagine, re-watching the worst moment of their life, over and over again. It was awful,” said Fazzino.
The prosecution painted a picture of jealousy and control. However, in the second week, Fazzino’s Defense Attorneys Bill Kutmus and Trever Hook, unveiled another side of Emily only a few people had ever seen.
“Emily was dragged through the mud by her own words, read by her own doctors,” said Fazzino.
A history of prescription pill abuse and accused alcoholism, all seen on an iPhone recording taken by Fazzino just weeks before Emily’s death.
In the video, Emily is slurring her words while home alone with their three children.
Fazzino said through their years of marriage, he had tried multiple times to get Emily substance abuse help, but he claims her family was too worried about their appearance in the Boone community.
“Her parents made me feel, and Emily feel, I was doing it because of a reason other than getting help. As if I was trying to embarrass her to go to rehab,” said Fazzino.
Two and a half weeks later, on March 9, 2016, after less than a day of jury deliberation, the verdict was in. Both sides of the courtroom were full, Emily’s family on one side and Fazzino’s on the other.
The jury could find him guilty of first degree murder, second degree murder, voluntary or involuntary manslaughter, or nothing at all.
Looking back, Kutmus and Hook both remember the tension in the room.
“You never know, even though we felt good about the case, you never know what a jury will do. I crumbled,” said Kutmus.
“There’s an old adage of, if the jury, if they won’t look your defendant in they eye… it’s not good. So lawyers always look at the jury when they come in,” said Hook.
The old adage seemed to play it’s part in this trial, too.
Hook says once the jury took their seats, the foreman, who mirrored Grizzly Adams, looked at Fazzino and smiled.
“I remember that because you can see me turn to Alex and say, “He smiled.” Then I saw it on your channel I remember that, smiling,” said Hook.
The jury found Fazzino not guilty of murder. After four years, he was free and felt like it.
“There was elation on one side and anger on the other,” said Fazzino.
Emily’s mother, Cynthia Beckwith, had to be escorted out of the courtroom.
“Thank God there was an impartial jury that could evaluate the facts and see the truth,” said Fazzino. “I was nearly taken from them for wild accusations that, again, had no basis in reality whatsoever.”
Fazzino walked out of that Decorah courtroom as easily as we walked down the sidewalk one year later in West Des Moines. Fazzino says not everything is coming as easily.
“Have you forgiven people?”
“Not yet. Maybe in time, but it’s… I’m not there yet,” said Fazzino.
Local 5 News reached out to Emily’s family, the Beckwith’s who own Fareway Grocery stores. They did not return our messages or comments.
However, purple ribbon still wrap many trees in Boone, including the tree in the Beckwith’s front yard. The ribbons have been there since the trial began, symbolizing hopeful justice for Emily.
When asked if he’s spoke with the Beckwith’s, Fazzino said they’ve had no contact.
“Surprisingly, they’ve not contacted us but more importantly, the kids since Emily’s passing really. For sure since the trial, there’s been no contact. While Coco was in the hospital, not so much as a card,” said Fazzino.
Today, Coco is on the road to recovery. She is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Girl of the Year for her uplifting videos of dancing while handling treatments.
“She’s fantastic,” said Fazzino. “It’s a way for us to give back for the support we had during her treatment.”
His two sons, Nick and Ricky, are also in sports and getting back to normal.
“I would give anything in the world right now to get Emily back. Anything. Anything. I feel like she was taken from me because they wouldn’t let her get help,” said Fazzino.
The past isn’t really all in the past since it’s only been one year.
“What do you say to people who think, “He got away with murder?”” I said.
“You know, it’s hard to swallow that people can think that,” said Fazzino.
Alex says it will take a long time for normal to feel normal again.
He lost his wife, was accused of her murder, shut out of a family who once helped him in times of need and he now faces overwhelming debt for defending his innocence. It’s that innocence that Fazzino says has remained a constant through his life.
“I’m just terribly disappointed that I had to go through a trial for a crime that didn’t happen. I’m disappointed that facts about me and events of that night were misrepresented in newspapers and by prosecutors and my in-laws. No one should have to go through that and it was terribly unfair to put our kids through that, parents through that, and me. It was a hard time and all for what? That’s a great question: All for what?”
