NORTHAMPTON — A Westfield man accused of killing his 20-year-old girlfriend in their apartment in 2019 was arraigned Thursday on three new charges after allegedly attempting to arrange for the killing of a witness and the prosecutor in his case while he was incarcerated at the Hampshire County jail.

Blake Jeremiah Scanlon, 26, pleaded not guilty to two counts of solicitation to commit murder and one count of solicitation to intimidate a witness in Hampshire Superior Court. Because he is already being held on bail on a murder charge, Judge John Agostini agreed to impose a nominal $100 bail request with the condition that Scanlon not contact the alleged victims.

Laurie Loisel, spokeswoman for the Northwestern district attorney’s office, said the charges stem from Scanlon’s alleged attempt to get a fellow inmate in the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction to arrange for the killing of two people: Ericalynn Condurcari, a witness in his murder trial, and Matthew Green, an assistant district attorney in the Hampden district attorney’s office, the prosecutor in Scanlon’s murder case.

Scanlon is alleged to have recruited a fellow inmate at the jail to arrange for someone to carry out the killings, and part of the plot included instructions to intimidate Condurcari from testifying if the murder could not be arranged, Loisel wrote in a statement Thursday.

“The person that he was trying to get to make this arrangement told the commonwealth,” Loisel said.

In January 2019, police found the body of Alexis Avery, Scanlon’s girlfriend, inside the Westfield apartment they shared with their young child. Avery had been stabbed to death, and Scanlon was in the living room with what prosecutors have said appeared to be a self-inflicted knife wound.

Police have alleged that Scanlon admitted to killing Avery. He pleaded not guilty to murder in that case, and has a final pre-trial conference scheduled for next month.

He was represented in court Thursday by Northampton attorney Marissa Elkins, who is also his defense attorney in the murder case in Hampden County. Northwestern First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne represented the commonwealth at Scanlon’s arraignment Thursday.

Dusty Christensen can be reached at dchristensen@gazettenet.com.]]>