By Nicholas Brown
Staff Writer

A judge will allow 2004 wiretapped phone conversations between Melanie Cooper and Eric Windhurst when the 20-year-old murder of Cooper’s stepfather, Daniel Paquette of Hooksett, goes to trial.

In a July 13 ruling, Merrimack County Superior Court Chief Justice Robert J. Lynn said the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office lawfully authorized the 2004 interstate tappings and rejected the defense’s notion that Cooper would have been brought back to New Hampshire to make the phone-tapping legal.

“The privacy interests at stake, e.g. those of (Windhurst) in New Hampshire, remain essentially the same regardless of whether the interception takes place within or without the borders of this state,” Lynn wrote.

Windhurst’s lawyers had argued that the phone intercepts, which were conducted with Cooper’s consent and authorized by former New Hampshire Senior Assistant Attorney General Michael Delaney, should be excluded from the upcoming trial.

The lawyers said Cooper ­ Windhurst’s Hopkinton High School friend ­ initiated the calls from her home in Idaho. Windhurst received the calls in New Hampshire, and were being tapped by New Hampshire State Police without Windhurst’s knowledge.

Windhurst, a Hopkinton resident and self-employed builder, was arrested at a job site last September and charged with the November 1985 murder.

Windhurst’s lawyers said they may argue the shooting was justified to protect Cooper and/or members of her family.

Daniel Paquette, who defense attorneys have argued was physically, emotionally and sexually abusive toward his stepdaughter was shot once through the heart from long distance.

Cooper, who has said she was with Windhurst on the day of the shooting, has admitted to deceiving police since 1985. Cooper agreed to cooperate with police when interviewed in 2004. She now faces a charge of misleading investigators.

Windhurst, who was 17 at the time of the shooting, faces life imprisonment if convicted of first-degree murder.

During the 2004 phone calls, Cooper told Windhurst police had contacted her about the Paquette murder investigation and she asked Windhurst for advice on how to handle the situation, court records show.

Windhurst responded that he had a lawyer retained for 10 years because of the investigation, and recommended Cooper find counsel, records show.

“Eric Windhurst said something to the effect that God would be OK with this,” according to Delaney’s account of a phone conversation. “Eric Windhurst told Melanie (Paquette) Cooper that she did not do anything wrong and had no part of this.”

Records show that Windhurst didn’t mention anything specific about Paquette’s death during talks with Cooper.

Windhurst’s trial is expected to begin within the next two months.