A 20-year-old Wareham man has been charged in connection with two stabbing deaths that occurred at the White Pines Motel on Cranberry Highway during the early morning hours of Saturday, January 8. Richard Walling pleaded 'not guilty' to two counts of manslaughter in Wareham District Court on Monday, and is currently held on $50,000 cash bail.

Walling allegedly stabbed 35-year-old Leonard Bolia and 24-year-old Ryan Aponte to death after the two attempted to enter his motel room and rob him, according to the police report.

In court Monday, Assistant District Attorney Sharon Donatelli asked for $50,000 cash bail, noting that Walling had unrelated assault charges pending in two different district courts and a history of default warrants.

Citing the police report, Donatelli told the court that on Friday evening, Richard Walling had been hanging out in his motel room home with his girlfriend, Candice D'Italia, when there was a sudden banging at the door. The knocking party in the hotel's hallway identified himself "Gilbert," another resident of the White Pines, and was denied entry by Walling. Walling told police he recognized that the voice on the other side of the door was "not Gilbert's."

After denying the knocking party entry, two masked men reportedly kicked the room's door in, and brandished a weapon that Walling said resembled a 9mm pistol. The two men were allegedly attempting to rob Walling of money he had inherited. Knowledge of his recent infusion of funds had reportedly become common knowledge around the motel.

A struggle broke out, during which D'Italia was thrown against the wall and then trapped between the wall and a mattress that was pulled from a bed in the room. Walling reportedly pulled his knife and went after the masked man who was allegedly holding a weapon. According to Donatelli, there is some inconsistency in the story between Walling and D'Italia's verison of events: Walling said only one of the prospective burglars was armed, D'Italia told police that both men were brandishing knives and pistols.

The struggle between the three men moved from Walling's room to the hallway, to another motel room across the hall, back to the original motel room, and finally into the hallway again before one masked man fled from the back door, the other from the front.

Police found Bolia in the front parking area of the White Pines Motel shortly after midnight on Saturday morning. He was taken to Tobey Hospital, where he later died. Aponte's body was found nearly nine hours later in a wooded area behind the motel. Both men had been stabbed fatally in the heart.

Bolia had no weapons or mask when discovered by police, Aponte was found with both a black mask and pellet gun that resembled a 9mm.

Walling’s attorney, Jack Atwood, claimed that his client's actions had all be carried out in self defense and that he was more the victim in this case than the perpetrator. He complained that Wareham Police had denied him access to his client on Saturday for several hours until he had complained to State Police.

Atwood also questioned the thoroughness of the police investigation of the scene. He produced, in court, a fire extinguisher that he claimed a motel resident had used to hit one of the masked assailants when the brawl had moved into the White Pines hallway, and wondered why the police had not collected it as evidence. Given these irregularities, and that his client's previous court defaults had been financial and not appearance-related, Atwood asked for $5,000 dollars cash bail, which the judge denied, instead setting bail at the state-requested $50,000.

Aponte’s family later expressed horror at the notion that their relative had been involved in an alleged robbery.

“My son was not a drug dealer, he would never rob anyone," Aponte's father, Steven Fernandes, told reporters outside the court on Monday.

Aponte’s aunt, Darlene Fernandes, went on to note that Aponte had been living in Florida with his pregnant girlfriend, and that he had never met Leonard Bolia before. Aponte's family said that he was in the process of relocating to Wareham to build a better life for his family, and that they found it impossible to believe he was trying to rob someone at the time of his death.

Aponte's family further questioned the details of the case, specifically why it had taken police so long to locate his body when they had been on the scene since shortly after midnight. The family also noted that Walling is medium-sized with a slim build, and wondered how it was possible that he over-powered two adult males, especially considering that Leonard Bolia was over six feet tall and weighed in excess 200 pounds.

Also charged in connection with the case is 20-year-old Ryan LaChance. LaChance allegedly drove Aponte and Bolia to the motel, and is accused of making false statements about the events to the police. He has pleaded not guilty to obstruction of justice charges in Wareham District Court and is held on $2,500 dollars cash bail.

Walling will next be in court on February 18 for a probable cause hearing.