Late on the night of May 12, two police officers responding to a Seneca Falls apartment found a small child unconscious and barely breathing.
That was the testimony of Seneca Falls Police Department Sgt. Angela Anderson and former SFPD Officer Brad Clouston during a suppression hearing Thursday for Donald Bovio in Seneca County Court.
Bovio faces a murder charge, as well as other charges, in the death of his 3-year-old stepson, Panagiotis “Peter” Stephanides-Vacchino.
Clouston, who is now with the Brighton Police Department, was the first officer on the scene at the Hunter’s Run complex on Peterman Road. He saw Peter unconscious on the kitchen floor, and Bovio and his wife, Alison, were there as well.
Anderson arrived a few minutes after Clouston. She said she saw a young child who was “unresponsive and barely breathing.”
Donald Bovio called 911 on the night of May 12 and said the boy fell down some stairs. Peter was taken to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, where medical staff told police the injuries were not consistent with a fall, prompting a child abuse investigation that led to the Bovios being charged with assault.
Peter was on life support at the hospital for several days before he died. District Attorney Barry Porsch presented the case to a grand jury after Peter died, leading to murder charges.
Anderson and Clouston said they talked to the Bovios at the scene and recorded those conversation with body cameras.
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