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Spadafora Trial Ordered; Will Girlfriend Testify?

Witnesses Describe Events Before, After Shooting

POSTED: 5:55 pm EST November 10, 2003
UPDATED: 6:48 pm EST November 10, 2003

Former world lightweight champion Paul Spadafora, who allegedly shot his girlfriend last month, was ordered Monday to stand trial on attempted homicide and aggravated assault charges.

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Whether the alleged victim, Nadine Russo, is willing to testify against Spadafora remains unclear. Still, assistant District Attorney Ed Borkowski said he has enough evidence to proceed against the man known in the sports world as "The Pittsburgh Kid."

Borkowski called four witnesses at a preliminary hearing Monday. None saw the Oct. 26 shooting at a McKees Rocks gas station, but they said they saw Spadafora and Russo argue about his Hummer's flat tires, then heard a loud bang a few minutes later.

Harry Nicoletti testified that he began tending to the staggering Russo.

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"I was trying to stop her bleeding," he testified. "I said, 'Who did this to you?' I said, 'Did a boyfriend do this to you?' She slurred the word 'yeah' ... in a moaning voice."

Russo did not participate in the hearing. Outside the courtroom, both she and Spadafora declined to comment.

In a cell phone conversation from her hospital room one day after the shooting, Russo told Channel 4's Chris Glorioso that it "couldn't be" Spadafora who had critically wounded her "because I was shot in the front and Paul was behind."


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