Tankleff's lawyers show possible new evidence

Tankleff's lawyers say newly discovered pipe corroborates man who said he drove two killers to the scene

By Zachary R. Dowdy | Staff Writer; Staff writer Andrew Smith contributed to this story.

July 20, 2004

Martin Tankleff's quest to reverse his conviction for murdering his parents relies largely on the word of a man who said he was there.

But on the first day of a hearing to determine whether he deserves a new trial, his attorneys produced what could be new physical evidence - a pipe that may have been what the killers used to bludgeon Seymour and Arlene Tankleff almost 16 years ago.

Defense attorneys said yesterday they unearthed the 36-inch pipe recently on the spot where a key defense witness said the murder weapon - a pipe - had been tossed after the slayings.

While acknowledging they couldn't be certain the rusty pipe was the weapon, the attorneys said its existence corroborates statements made by a man who said he was there on Sept. 7, 1988, when the couple was killed. The defense attorneys say the pipe supports their argument that Tankleff, who was convicted in 1990 of the killings, is innocent.

The revelation came during the first day of a weeklong hearing that will determine whether Tankleff deserves a new trial. It is being conducted in Riverhead before Suffolk County Court Judge Stephen L. Braslow.

While it is not a trial, the hearing looks like the mirror image of one. The defense team bears the burden of proof. The task for Tankleff's legal team is to demonstrate to Braslow either that Tankleff is innocent or that, had jurors heard the new information, they likely would have rendered a different verdict.

It is the latest of several attempts that Tankleff, 32, has launched to free himself from a 50-years-to-life sentence for the murder conviction.

Jay Salpeter, a retired New York City detective and private investigator who was hired by Tankleff's family and whose investigation sparked the motion for a new trial, was the first to testify yesterday. He said that a few weeks ago he discovered the pipe on the property of Tankleffs' neighbors, Ruth and John Trager, who have lived there for more than 30 years.

He said he and another investigator found it near the Tragers' driveway when they scoured the grounds with a metal detector. "I said, 'This is the pipe,'" Salpeter recounted.

John Trager testified he has never seen the pipe before and that his grounds are largely untouched.

That pipe could have enormous value for Tankleff because it is "consistent" with statements made in the last two years by Glenn Harris, who claims he drove two men, Joseph Creedon and Peter Kent, to the Tankleff home and that the pair killed the couple, said defense attorney Bruce Barket of Garden City.

Defense attorneys said they will submit the pipe for forensic testing. But experts suggested that even if the pipe is the murder weapon, it no longer could yield any organic material - blood, saliva or hair - that could link anyone to it.

"It's improbable that any DNA would remain on a weapon left outside for 16 years," said Joseph Galdi, chief of the Suffolk Crime Lab's biological sciences section. "You've got rain washing it off. You've got sunlight, which degrades DNA. And you've got bacteria growing on it. I don't see it lasting a matter of months."

The defense maintains Creedon and Kent killed the couple at the behest of Jerry Steuerman, now of Florida, a business partner of Seymour Tankleff who owed him hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Steuerman was at the Tankleff home until the early morning of the day the couple was killed and had argued with Tankleff about the money that night during a high-stakes poker game. Steuerman was the last player to leave that night, and at Tankleff's trial the defense pointed to him as the likely suspect.

Martin Tankleff has said he discovered the bodies of his parents about 6 a.m. They had been beaten and stabbed.

Salpeter found Harris in January 2003 after exploring links between associates of Steuerman. Harris, who is scheduled to testify this week, is expected to say he drove the men to the Belle Terre home because he thought they were planning to commit a burglary or to collect some money - not a murder.

He will also say that the men emerged from the house nervously, that Kent burned his clothes a few hours later and that Creedon tossed the pipe into a wooded area.

Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Leonard Lato tried to discredit Salpeter's investigation by citing letters in which Harris admits to being a drug addict with psychological problems. He pointed out that Salpeter did not record any statements made by Harris.

Lato also cited statements by Harris that suggest he had an ulterior motive. In at least one letter, Lato said Harris wanted to be "rewarded" for providing information that could free Tankleff, such as book or movie deals. He also implied that Salpeter may be trying to use the case to get more clients and enrich his own investigation firm. "You get on TV and you get your name in the papers - that should be good for business, right?" Lato said yesterday.