Trial In 2016 Slaying Of Tewksbury Teen Set To Open

TEWKSBURY, MA — After several delays, the two men accused in the 2016 death of a 15-year-old Tewksbury boy are scheduled to go on trial on Aug. 19. Joseph Zagarella, 20, is charged with manslaughter and will be tried in conjunction with Joseph Ogden, 53, of Lowell, who is accused of providing alcohol to minors at the Halloween party where prosecutors say Zagarella slammed Costello onto a concrete floor.

The trial was originally scheduled to open last November, but a Lowell Superior Court judge granted an extension. The charges against Zagarella were changed to manslaughter in October 2017 after a long-delayed report from the State Medical Examiner's Office was finally completed and confirmed Costello's death as a homicide.

The previous month, a Lowell District Court judge denied the district attorney's office's motion to delay the trial because of delays in obtaining the autopsy report from the state medical examiner. Without the report, prosecutors had reduced charges against Zagarella to assault.

More than 75 teens, most of them from Tewksbury, attended the party at Ogden's private residence in the Belvedere neighborhood of Lowell on Oct. 28, 2016. According to witnesses, Costello was intoxicated and bumped into the bigger Zagarella, who grabbed Costello by the neck and slammed him onto a concrete floor.

Prosecutors say Zagarella bragged about the assault as he left the party and initially lied to police when questioned. There was as much as a two-hour delay in getting Costello medical treatment, and no one at the party called emergency services, according to an investigator's report.

One witness said Ogden refused to help even as Costello was vomiting blood. Ogden told police his child had some friends over but denied having any knowledge of alcohol consumption, according to the investigator's report.

The witness and some friends then tried to revive Costello in a shower before driving him to the emergency room at Lowell General Hospital. Costello, whose injuries were described as "grave" when hospital officials called police, died of his injuries after being transported to Tufts Floating Hospital in Boston.

Dave Copeland covers Tewksbury for Patch and can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).