Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

PROVIDENCE -- In opening remarks at a civil trial this morning, the lawyer for the family of a college student crushed by a bus in Newport said that one of the two defendants admitted to pushing the student.

Francis J. Marx V was a 21-year-old senior at Fairfield University in Connecticut when he was killed on May 20, 2004, after either falling or being pushed under a bus carrying University of Rhode Island students on a pub crawl. Marx's parents are suing two URI graduates who they claim scuffled with their son and led to his death. Neither had been criminally charged.

The civil trial in the wrongful death lawsuit began today before Judge Susan McGuirl at Providence County Superior Court.

Marx had been attending a formal event at one of the mansions in Newport, while Loren Welsh, now 26, of Neshanic Station, N.J., and Jarrad Rocheleau, now 26, of Cumberland, were among a group of URI seniors celebrating their upcoming graduation.

As Parrillo recounted the day's events leading up to Marx's death, he said that Welsh claimed to be defending herself during an argument. However, he said, Welsh had previously been at a club where she became belligerent. When the police saw her after Marx was killed, Welsh was in tears and told an officer, "He punched me, I pushed him, and now he's dead."

Welsh's attorneys, Mark Dolan and Jim D'Ambra, are expected to give their opening statements today, as are Rocheleau's attorneys, Lauren Wilkins and Ronald Langlois. Rocheleau and a Newport police officer who encountered Welsh are also expected to testify today.

-- With reports from Journal staff writer Talia Buford

 Tags  Fairfield University University of Rhode Island

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