Nicholis J. Wilcox, a father of three who worked in construction and specialized in roofing, was 39 years old when police officers found him dead in a dumpster behind a shopping center in Broward County.
Wilcox, who was from Connecticut and lived in Plantation, got caught up in a love triangle between roommates Isabella Tagliarini and Eric Robinson that turned deadly in 2017, according to prosecutors.
In a courtroom, during Robinson’s trial, Tuesday, jurors watched Assistant State Attorney Peter Sapak display evidence that officers found around Wilcox’s body near Nob Hill Road and Cleary Boulevard.
“That is the gray tarp that the body was wrapped in,” Plantation Cpt. Jessica Ryan said in court during the murder suspect’s trial.
Sapak showed photographs of Wilcox’s body to the jury. He also detectives to describe how Tagliarini confessed to her role in the crime and what the townhouse where they lived, at 7201 NW 15 St., was like when they searched it.
“I observed ... a blood droplet on the counter by the sink,” Detective Lance Schurkman said adding that he also saw a “blood smear” in the residential complex’s pool area.
Sgt. Christopher King told the jury that he remembered there was “an overwhelming smell of household cleaning products” in the townhouse’s master bedroom.
“All of the furniture was in the middle of the room, there was no mattress in the room, and the wall on the south side of the room was freshly painted,” King said in court
Nicholas Tagliarini, who had divorced Isabella Tagliarinnin in 2016, reported the crime, according to prosecutors. She said Robinson had been in jail in August 2017, and even though they had broken up a relationship, he was enraged when he found her and Wilcox sleeping together, according to detectives.
King and Ryan both testified that Isabella Tagliarini was visibly upset when they met her.
“She appeared to be shaken up, she was crying,” Ryan said.
Prosecutors accused Robinson of using a metal crowbar to bludgeon Wilcox to death while he was sleeping next to Isabella Tagliarini at about 2:30 a.m., on Oct. 5, 2017, three days after he was released from jail. Wilcox suffered head injuries when Robinson struck him in the face and throat, police said.
Plantation Lt. Joseph Cuccia testified about a conversation he had with Isabella Tagliarini at the police station that he still remembers.
“She said, ‘Can I ask you a question?’ Before I could respond, she said, ‘Do you think I will ever forget the sound of somebody trying to breathe?’”
Tagliarini claimed to have participated in the crime scene clean up and the disposal of the body because she was afraid that Robinson was going to kill her too, according to prosecutors.
On Tuesday, prosecutors had yet to show jurors a surveillance video that detectives reported showed Isabella Tagliarini driving a Cadillac with Robinson to the shopping center where Wilcox’s body was and incriminating cell phone records.
Broward Sheriff’s Office records show Plantation detectives arrested Robinson on Oct. 5, 2017, and deputies have held him without bond at the main jail on six charges, including murder, domestic violence, a probation violation on a cocaine possession case, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
Before the arrest for murder, Robinson had a history of arrests for domestic violence battery by strangulation on June 2, 2017; opium possession and aggravated battery on Aug. 9, 2016; and cocaine possession on July 19, 2001; March 10, 2011; April 8, 2017; and Aug. 23, 2017, Broward court records show.
Prosecutors charged Robinson with murder with a depraved mind, a second-degree felony. Prosecutors charged Tagliarini with accessory after the fact, a third-degree felony, and her case with Broward Circuit Judge Bernard I. Bober remains pending, court records show.
Testimony in Robinson’s trial is scheduled to continue on Wednesday.
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