Shortly after he surrendered to police on the morning of February 5, 2015, former Coast Guard officer Adrian Thomas Loya told detectives in a taped interview that he had planned to kill Lisa Trubnikova in retaliation for a sexual assault.
Today was the first time that Loya became emotional in court. He wiped away tears as the jury watched the two-hour interview detailing his plan to drive from Chesapeake, Virginia, to his fellow officer's home on Monument Beach.
Just after 2:00 a.m., Loya wore a mask as he shot his way into the condo and confronted Trubnikova in her bedroom upstairs. He was there for vengeance, Loya told her, referring to a 2012 assault in Alaska when Trubnikova had touched him and demanded sex. "You had two years to say you were sorry," he said that he told her.
Loya then fired his gun until he emptied the magazine, killing Trubnikova and injuring her wife, Anna.
The video interview revealed that Loya had spent months planning the attack, which he captured with a camera strapped to his chest. "I wanted to murder her" on my 31st birthday, Loya told investigators. He recorded everything to prove it was not a terrorist attack, Loya explained, but "a very personal act."
Outside the condo on Roundhouse Road, Loya set his Mazda ablaze to deter first responders from accessing the scene. Nearby, he rigged a boombox to a smoke grenade; its appearance would slow down police who initially thought it was a bomb. When he saw the silhouette of who he believed to be an approaching officer, Loya said he fired, hoping to be killed in the crossfire. "I know I'm already a dead man," he said in the interview.
His gunfire hit Bourne Police Officer Jared MacDonald, whose injuries that morning ended his career in law enforcement.
MacDonald was among the twelve witnesses who have testified for the Commonwealth this week. Others include Bourne Chief of Police Dennis Woodside and police officer Josh Parsons, who arrested Loya. "He was sober," Parsons remembered. "Overly calm."
The jury of nine women and six men will decide whether Loya was sane and therefore responsible when he killed Trubnikova. Prosecutors—First Assistant District Attorney Brian Glenny and Assistant District Attorney Michael Donovan—must prove that he was. Loya's defender, Drew Segadelli, says one psychiatrist will testify that Loya was delusional at the time of the shootings; another will suggest he has Asperger Syndrome.
Loya told detectives he'd been coordinating the murder as early as 2013. That year, the investigation he demanded the Coast Guard conduct into his assault claim failed to result in disciplinary action against Trubnikova. Loya transferred from Alaska to Virginia to get away.
He became depressed and suffered breakdowns, he said, and even recorded one where he hyperventilated. Over Columbus Day weekend in October 2014, Loya told the Coast Guard he needed two weeks off to look for a job. He Googled Trubnikova's address and drove 600 miles to her condo, where he rigged up a camera in a nearby tree to confirm it was her home.
Then, he waited. His birthday was coming in February. He decided he would drive back to Cape Cod, stay at the nearby Quality Inn, and kill her then.
The judge, Gary Nickerson, said he expects the trial to continue through September 8.
