Staff reports 6:46 a.m.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016 6:46 am

Convicted murderer Tristan Wolusky waits in an elevator at court on Tuesday prior to his departure after a hearing. (Courtesy Union Leader/Kimberly Haas)

DOVER, N.H. - Convicted murder Tristan Wolusky's quest to have his guilty verdict in the brutal slaying of a Madbury teen continued Tuesday with the lawyers of his co-conspirators in the brutal slaying declaring they would be testifying at an upcoming hearing and not pleading their fifth amendment rights against self-incrimination.

Michael Tatum, 23, of Barrington;and Zachary Pinette, 20, of Springvale, Maine, testified during an weekslong trial last year that they along with Wolusky stabbed 18-year-old Aaron Wilkerson during a botched robbery attempt in June 2014.

Though the pair's testimony reflected differing accounts of Wolusky's actions, prosecutors painted Wolusky as the ringleader and an active participant in the killing of Wilkinson, who was stabbed with knives and a machete 22 times.

Wolusky was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole while Tatum and Pinette got second-degree murder with the possibility of parole, largely because they had agreed to testify against Wolusky.

But in statements subsequent to Wolusky's sentencing in December both agreed that they had perjured themselves on on the stand, and since then Wolusky's attorney, Mark Sisti, has been pushing hard to have the verdict against his client set aside.

On Tuesday Wolusky, 20, of Rochester, was in Strafford County Superior Court while his co-conspirators made statements through their attorneys that they wouldn't plead the fifth.

An evidentiary hearing during which Sisti will present his case for dismissal is set for mid-August.