Articles Posted in Murder

The petitioner, an inmate at Coxsackie Correctional Facility, has commenced the instant CPLR Article 78 proceeding to review a determination by respondent New York State Board of Parole denying his request for discretionary release. Respondent opposes the petition seeking its dismissal.

Currently, the petitioner is serving an indeterminate prison sentence of 15 years to life upon a plea of guilty to Murder in the second degree. The underlying offense that occurred in 1980 involved the petitioner, in concert with others, robbing a victim at knife-point and then stabbing the victim to death. The petitioner was approximately 20 years old at the time he committed the underlying offense.

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In January of 1996, a man offered a woman $1,500.00 to use her apartment for a drug deal. She accepted and the man and another man moved into the woman’s apartment to wait for a large amount of heroin to be delivered from San Francisco by another man. While in the apartment, the woman saw that one of the men, the defendant, had a small caliber handgun. When the man from San Francisco who was delivering the heroin arrived in New York, the woman and two men went to his hotel.

Several days later, the defendant and the woman returned to the hotel and searched it for the heroin. When they found it, they returned to the woman’s apartment where the other men were watching television. The woman stated that she was in the living room when the defendant and the other men went into the back bedroom. They came out about 15 minutes later without the man from San Francisco. She testified later that she went in to the back bedroom and discovered the San Francisco man lying on the bed face down with blood pouring from his head. The defendant and the other two men divided the heroin among them and then convinced the woman to help them wrap the body in a rug. They dumped the body along Riverside Drive in Upper Manhattan where it was quickly found and identified.

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Daniel D was indicted along with five other individuals for the murder in the first degree of George Simon. All of the defendants were acquitted of the murder charge but Mr. D was ultimately convicted of assault with intent to kill. For this conviction, he received a sentence of 5 to 10 years. Following his conviction, evidence surfaced that lead to an indictment of Mr. Di Lapo on several counts of burglary in the first degree and attempted robbery in the first degree. On the advice of his defense attorney, Mr. D plead guilty to one count of attempted robbery in the first degree. The Erie County Court sentenced him to a term of 5 to 15 years, to be served consecutively with his previous sentence. Later, this sentence was reduced to 5 to 11 years but was still required to be served consecutively. Mr. D appealed the sentence to the Appellate Division, Fourth Department. The Appellate Division subsequently affirmed the trial court’s decision unanimously.

The case then proceeded to the New York State Court of Appeals. The Court was asked to consider whether the elements of the alleged Robbery and the elements of the first degree attempted assault similar enough to prevent the defendant from receiving a double punishment as prescribed under New York law.

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On January 17, 2003, a man was found guilty by the County Court of Chenango County of murdering his wife. His motion to have this decision vacated, or set aside, was rejected without a hearing.

Let’s review the facts of the case. According to reports, a car accident occurred at the Guilford Lake in Chenango County on April 3, 2002. When the Sheriff’s Department rushed to the scene, they found a man standing at the top of an embankment and saw the taillights of a car submerged in the lake. When they interviewed the man, he said that his wife was driving when a deer ran into the road. She swerved and the car plunged into the lake. Her body was later found at the bottom of the lake, beside the car.

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