Long Island

complete coverage: Central Islip triple homicide

Two men were convicted Tuesday by separate juries of torturing and killing three people in Central Islip and torching the house with one of the victim's two children inside.
"Lord, I'm happy," Sandra Daniels, mother of two of the victims, said afterward. "I pray in the name of Jesus that they see our children's faces every day they're in prison."
<a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> first heard one jury convict Thomas Singletary, 36, of three counts of second-degree murder, two counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and one count of second-degree arson. The jury acquitted him of first-degree murder. Moments later, court clerk Kristine Rasanen asked a second jury for its verdict on Hasan Vaughan, 36. He was convicted of all charges, including first-degree murder.
The juries believed the prosecution's case that Vaughan was enraged that his girlfriend, Katrice Daniels, 31; her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28; and her friend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19, had helped steal his laptop, and recruited Singletary to get revenge.
The two men beat, shot, stabbed and strangled the victims before splashing gasoline throughout the house and setting it on fire, leaving Mykier Daniels' young children behind. The youngsters escaped unharmed. The two men were burned in the fire and left DNA behind as they ran from the house.
Sandra Daniels is raising her daughter's children. "I let them know these monsters will never come out," she said. "That's what they call them, monsters."
Her partner, Charles Holder, wept tears of relief as he heard the verdicts. "They were like my daughters," he said of the Daniels sisters. "If you live by the sword, you die by the sword."
Calixto's mother, Yolanda Dejesus, said the tension of the verdict, in a trial that began four months ago with jury selection, was intense. "It was like being at the edge of a cliff," she said. "And then, a breath of fresh air."
After the verdict, members of both juries compared notes in the courthouse foyer after having been apart for months. For about two hours, they hugged one another and the victims' parents and chatted with Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla and Vaughan's lawyer, William Keahon of <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a>. "You should be proud of your verdict," Biancavilla told jurors. "These were two very bad guys."
Cheryl Hughes of <a href="/topics//Ridge,_NY">Ridge</a>, one of Vaughan's jurors, said it took time to figure out whether gaps in the story amounted to reasonable doubt. "The puzzle had to fit," she said. "It wasn't easy. My heart's with the babies [Mykier Daniels' children], and I hope they have a good life."
Singletary's attorney, Daniel Russo of <a href="/topics//Westhampton_Beach,_NY">Westhampton Beach</a>, said he respected the verdict and that his client was disappointed. Keahon said, "I've had similar cases and gotten them reversed" on appeal.
<a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> will sentence the defendants June 19. Vaughan faces a maximum of life in prison without parole. Singletary faces 102 1/3 years to life.
Dejesus said Vaughan could have avoided it all by coming to her about his stolen property. "We would have paid him back for that laptop," she said.

Suffolk

LIVAUG15

2 guilty in Central Islip triple-murder

vaughan comp - crop

One set of jurors reached a verdict Monday in a <a href="/topics//Central_Islip,_NY">Central Islip</a> triple murder trial, but only they and the judge know what that verdict is. 
 Since May 3, two juries have been deliberating the charges against Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central <a href="/topics//Islip,_NY">Islip</a>. They are charged with first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, second-degree arson and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment. 
 They are accused of torturing and killing Vaughan's girlfriend, Katrice Daniels, 31; her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28; and her friend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19; before setting the house on fire with Mykier Daniels' two young children inside. The kids got out and survived. 
 <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> had two juries hear the case because portions of the defense cases implicated each other. When Singletary's jury announced it had reached a verdict after more than 34 hours of deliberation over seven days, <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> said he did not want to risk Vaughan's jury hearing word of Singletary's verdict. 
 When Singletary's jury came in, <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> looked at its verdict and sealed it in an envelope. 
 "Your verdict is sealed temporarily," he told jurors. "Do not reveal your verdict to anyone, not even to your family. You must have no contact whatsoever with the other jury." 
 Meanwhile, Vaughan's jury continued to talk into the evening. It has heard the charges re-read several times and has asked more than once to know if the victims' DNA was found anywhere other than where their bodies were discovered. It was not. 
 In his closing argument almost two weeks ago, Vaughan's attorney, William Keahon of <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a>, said his client had been burned because he arrived at the house as it exploded in a gasoline fire. Keahon said Vaughan wasn't present for the killings, however, and dismissed the prosecution theory that he was seeking payback against the victims for stealing his computer and credit cards. 
 Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla told jurors that the only people other than the victims whose DNA was found in the house were Vaughan and Singletary. 
 If Vaughan had nothing to do with the crime, Biancavilla said he would have called 911, as he did after his laptop was stolen. And he would not have gone 48 miles to a hospital in Brooklyn to get treated under a false name for the second- and third-degree burns covering 60 percent of his body, he said.

LIVAUG14

Central Islip triple homicide case: Judge seals first verdict in triple murder

Central Islip triple homicide cropped

The end of a lengthy triple murder trial in <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court has been delayed because federal probation officers have refused to comply with a subpoena to testify as witnesses for one of the defendants. 
 Thomas Singletary, one of two men charged with first-degree murder and arson, wants his former probation officers, Edward Kanaley and Trevor Reid, to tell a jury he was complying with the rules the day after the Aug. 11, 2009, crime and a couple of weeks before. Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> signed a subpoena for defense attorney Daniel Russo of <a href="/topics//Westhampton_Beach,_NY">Westhampton Beach</a>, but the officers and their supervisor say they don't have to obey it. 
 "There is no legal authority requiring the federal judiciary or any of its employees to comply with your subpoena," Chief U.S. Probation Officer Eileen Kelly wrote to Russo. ". . . Thus, your subpoena is improper and unenforceable, and I respectfully request that you withdraw it." 
 The development comes at the end of a trial that began more than three months ago with jury selection. Singletary and Hasan Vaughan, both 36 and of Central Islip, are accused of torturing, stabbing, shooting and strangling Vaughan's girlfriend, Katrice Daniels, 31; her sister Mykier Daniels, 28; and Mykier Daniels' friend Louis Calixto Jr., 19. 
 Prosecutors say Vaughan sought revenge against the victims for stealing his laptop and jewelry, and that he recruited Singletary to help. The two men are being tried together but with separate juries. Testimony in the case against Vaughan concluded Wednesday. 
 Thursday, Russo told <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> he wanted to do "whatever is required legally to force these individuals to respond to the subpoena." 
 Russo said the officers will show the connection between Vaughan and Singletary is slight. Both juries have heard that Singletary was in a car driven by Vaughan when he fled police and resisted arrest July 23. 
 "These witnesses would testify that Mr. Singletary was doing what he was supposed to do," Russo said. <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> delayed the end of the case until Tuesday to see if the officers could be called to court. 
 But <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> and Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla warned that if Russo succeeds at getting the officers into court, it could backfire. 
 "You walk a fine line, counselor," <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> said. At the moment, <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> has precluded testimony about Singletary's extensive criminal record, including a federal conviction for a violent home invasion. 
 If <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> finds the point of the testimony is to show Singletary was peaceful and law-abiding, he said he could allow Biancavilla to show otherwise. 
 Biancavilla said he presented the July 23 incident to show the defendants knew each other. 
 "It explains why both their DNA was found in blood and skin at a scene where three people had been tortured and slaughtered," he said.

LIVAUG26

Central Islip triple murder trial delayed by refusal to testify

Using gruesome photographs and clinical language, doctors told jurors Tuesday in <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court about the brutal violence victims suffered in a triple homicide in Central Islip.
Forensic pathologists Odette Hall and Hajar Sims-Childs testified about their autopsies of two of the three victims at the trial of Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central Islip. They are charged with first-degree murder and arson in the deaths of Louis Calixto Jr., 19; his friend Mykier Daniels, 28; and her sister, Katrice Daniels, 31, on Aug. 11, 2009, in a Central Islip house that was later set on fire.
Before Mykier Daniels was killed, Hall said she was hit in the face, hard enough to give her a black eye, a bruise on her forehead, a scrape on her chin and bruises inside her mouth.
She was also shot in her right arm and left leg, with both bullets breaking bones, Hall said. But the fatal wounds were in her neck, she said. Two were stab wounds. One on the right side of her neck cut into her jugular vein, and one on the left severed her carotid artery. Either of those wounds could have caused her to bleed to death, Hall said.
Covering those wounds, however, was an electrical cord from an iron, wrapped tight twice around her neck. That strangulation also contributed to her death, Hall said.
Prosecutors say Vaughan recruited Singletary to seek revenge against the three for stealing his laptop and money from his apartment.
During her testimony, both defendants avoided looking at the screen displaying photos from the crime scene and the autopsy. In the courtroom, parents of the victims wept quietly. They refused to leave the courtroom although Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla warned them the photos would upset them.
Calixto also died from stab wounds to the neck, Sims-Childs said. One in his right throat cut into his airway, she said. Three more behind and below his left ear cut his esophagus and pierced his spinal cord.
A dozen stab wounds, mostly clustered in his upper back, also contributed to his death, she said. Some cut his lungs, leading to heavy blood loss.
He was shot once in the back, but the bullet caused no major damage, Sims-Childs said. And he had cuts from a knife in his scalp and on the back of his right fingers.
Calixto's mother murmured, "My baby," as she listened.
A third pathologist will testify Wednesday about Katrice Daniels' autopsy. Hall, who recovered the bodies from the crime scene, said she was shot in the arms, back and neck.

LIVAUG17

Central Islip triple homicide case: Pathologists describe gruesome wounds

Within minutes, the fire raced through the house on Hickory Street in <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a> in August, quickly destroying the two-story home. 
But the real horror lay inside: Investigators found three bodies together in a rear bedroom, each one shot, and one with an electrical cord wrapped around the neck. 
For five months, there were no arrests in the slayings - until Monday, when authorities announced two Central Islip men were indicted on murder and arson charges. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/photos-central-islip-triple-homicide-case-1.1724179"> &gt;&gt; PHOTOS: Central Islip triple homicide case</a> 
Prosecutors Monday said Hasan Vaughan, 33, and Thomas Singletary, 33, both of Central Islip, set the house on fire after Vaughan killed Katrice Daniels, 31, her sister Mykier Daniels, 28, and Mykier's friend Louis Calixto Jr., 19. 
Both men were burned as they fled the scene, Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said after Singletary was arraigned in <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court in <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a>. 
Chalifoux would not discuss a possible motive for the killings. 
"It appears to have been a horrific crime in that two of the victims appear to have been tortured prior to their deaths, and the arson was an attempt to cover up the murders," Chalifoux said. 
Mykier Daniels was shot, stabbed and strangled, and found with an electrical cord from an iron around her neck, Chalifoux said. 
Katrice Daniels was shot, and Calixto was shot and stabbed, he said. Mykier Daniels and Calixto showed signs that they were tortured, he said. 
Mykier Daniels' children, then ages 2 and 6, escaped unharmed from the Aug. 11 blaze. 
Singletary pleaded not guilty to second-degree arson through his Legal Aid attorney, Douglas O'Connor of <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a>, and was ordered held on $1 million bail by State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs. He is due back in court on Feb. 19. 
Chalifoux said in court Singletary had been convicted of seven prior felonies, including three violent felonies. 
Vaughan was indicted on one count of first-degree murder for the death of Mykier Daniels, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of arson. 
Vaughan was not arraigned Monday because he did not have an attorney. He was ordered to return to court Feb. 4 and was held without bail. 
Vaughan had a relationship with at least some of the victims, Chalifoux said, but he declined to elaborate. 
As he fled the fire, Vaughan was burned "over a substantial part of his body," Chalifoux said. He received treatment for several weeks from two New York City hospitals, he said. 
Singletary was treated for burns at <a href="/topics/Brookhaven%2C_NY">Brookhaven</a> Memorial Hospital Medical Center in <a href="/topics/East_Patchogue%2C_NY">East Patchogue</a>, Chalifoux said. 
Until Monday, Singletary and Vaughan had been in federal custody for violating the terms of their supervised release, Chalifoux said. Vaughan was awaiting sentencing for a carjacking and shooting, he said. 
<a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/photos-central-islip-triple-homicide-case-1.1724179"> &gt;&gt; PHOTOS: Central Islip triple homicide case</a> 
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LIMURD26

2 charged in Central Islip triple homicide

Shock and horror were clear in the voices of neighbors on Hickory Street in <a href="/topics//Central_Islip,_NY">Central Islip</a> as they called 911 on the morning of Aug. 11, 2009, after a house went up in flames.
Tapes of the calls were played Friday at the trial of Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central Islip, who are being tried before <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> on charges of torching the house after torturing and killing three people inside.
"Nobody's out of the house!" one man sobbed to the 911 operator. "I don't know what to do."
"Oh my God," another woman said. "There are two kids in there. Oh my God. Oh, it's terrible."
The two children escaped, but their mother, Mykier Daniels, 28, was dead in a back room. So was her boyfriend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19, and her sister, Katrice Daniels, 31, who was Vaughan's girlfriend.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla has said Vaughan took his friend Singletary to the house seeking revenge after Calixto and Mykier Daniels broke into his apartment and stole his laptop and money. The men are charged with first-degree murder and arson.
Earlier Friday, another neighbor, Augustine Murillo, gave another version of events on his second day of often-muddled testimony.
On Thursday, Murillo described a man that appeared to resemble Vaughan who left the house as it exploded into flames. He said then that he asked the man: "What's happening? What's happening?" But the man ignored him and walked away.
Friday, however, Murillo told Vaughan's attorney, William Keahon of <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a>, that he glanced at the man before he went back into his own house to get his family out and that he had no conversation with him. He told Keahon he stayed inside for about 45 minutes.
Then, during questioning by Singletary's attorney, Daniel Russo of <a href="/topics//Westhampton,_NY">Westhampton</a>, Murillo said he was inside for less than a minute getting his family out.
He said when he came out a second time, he saw a car "take off" from in front of the burning house, but he didn't see who was driving that car.

LIVAUG02

Tapes of 911 calls heard at triple-murder trial

Just as the house next door burst into flames, a <a href="/topics//Central_Islip,_NY">Central Islip</a> man testified, he saw a man hurry out of the home, head toward a car and take off. 
 "I asked him, 'What's going on? What's going on?' " Augustine Murillo testified in Spanish through an interpreter Thursday. "He didn't answer." 
 Seconds later, as Murillo got his family out of his own house, he saw two children in the side door of the burning house and helped them escape just before dawn on Aug. 11, 2009. 
 Later, firefighters and police found three charred bodies inside. They were Katrice Daniels, 31; her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28; and her boyfriend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19. 
 Murillo testified at the Riverhead trial of Katrice Daniels' boyfriend, Hasan Vaughan, and Thomas Singletary, both 36, of Central <a href="/topics//Islip,_NY">Islip</a>. They are charged with first-degree murder and arson. 
 Like another neighbor who testified Wednesday, Murillo said he heard screams and gunshots during the night, but didn't call police about it. During cross-examination by Vaughan's attorney, William Keahon, Murillo said his wife called police earlier that night about loud rap music coming from the house. 
 "So you call police about loud music playing, but not about a woman screaming and four to six shots fired?" Keahon asked. <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> sustained an objection and Murillo did not answer. 
 Murillo also avoided answering numerous questions from Keahon about details in which his testimony Thursday differed from a statement he gave to police the day of the crime. 
 Those details included whether the man walked or ran from the house as he said it exploded; whether he saw the man or heard the explosion first; whether he could identify the type of car the man drove away in; and whether he left his car lights on overnight. 
 <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> grew so frustrated with Murillo's inability to answer Keahon's questions clearly that he said he was going to advise him he faced contempt of court charges. 
 But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla blamed Keahon for the problem. "I don't give a three-hour lecture on what I want to elicit" from witnesses, he said. "Mr. Keahon should ask more succinct questions." 
 He then urged Keahon to just put Murillo's statement to police into evidence. That prompted Keahon to accuse Biancavilla of coaching Murillo to be difficult in order to get the statement into evidence. 
 In the end, both sides agreed to tell the jury that Murillo gave different details to police than in court.

LIVAUG01

Witness: Man ran from house in flames

The quiet of a summer night evaporated into screams from a neighboring house, a <a href="/topics//Central_Islip,_NY">Central Islip</a> man testified Wednesday at a triple murder trial.
Rigoberto Romero Ochoa recalled that he had been asleep for about an hour when he was awakened by the screams coming from the house on Hickory Street, just behind his home.
He was the first witness in the trial of Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central <a href="/topics//Islip,_NY">Islip</a>. They are charged with torturing and killing Vaughan's girlfriend, Katrice Daniels, 31; her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28, and her boyfriend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19, in August 2009. Then they burned the house down, <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> authorities say.
"I heard them crying out for, like, clemency," said Ochoa, who testified in Spanish through an interpreter. "They were saying, 'Please.' "
Although he also heard children crying, Ochoa said during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla that he ignored it because he often heard fighting at that house. "We just went to sleep," he said.
But an hour later, he was awakened again, this time by the sound of six gunshots. "Then, after the gunshots, everything was calm," he said, so he went back to sleep again.
That lasted only until 5 a.m., when he said his wife heard an explosion and woke him. The same house was now engulfed in a roaring fire, so he went outside and got his garden hose. "I didn't want the trees to catch fire to my house," he said.
The case against Vaughan and Singletary is being heard simultaneously by separate juries, because each may implicate the other as part of his defense.
The conclusion of Ochoa's testimony was delayed when an alternate juror in Singletary's jury reported after lunch that a Singletary relative approached her and called her by name. She was dismissed by <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a>, who spent the rest of the afternoon with attorneys questioning the 34 remaining jurors and alternates to make sure no one had approached them.
"Any attempt by anyone to contact a juror will not be tolerated," <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> said. Anyone doing so could face obstruction charges, he added.
Singletary's attorney, Daniel Russo of <a href="/topics//Westhampton,_NY">Westhampton</a>, said his client was upset that someone was tampering with the jury hearing his case.

LIVAUG28

Neighbor heard screams, shots on night of triple murders

The killers set fire to a Central Islip house to cover their tracks but, a Suffolk prosecutor told two juries Monday, it was the fire that tied the two men on trial to the scene of three gruesome murders. 
 Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central Islip, went on trial Monday before Suffolk County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> on first-degree murder, arson and other charges. They are accused of torturing and killing Vaughan's girlfriend, Katrice Daniels, 31; her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28, and her boyfriend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19. Then they got some gasoline and burned the Hickory Street house down, said Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. 
 "The fire caught them both," Biancavilla said in his opening statement, as he paced between two juries on opposite sides of the courtroom. "In their panic to get out of that house before they were burned alive, they bounced off walls and furniture. And what did they leave behind, ladies and gentlemen? Burned skin." 
 DNA extracted from the burned flesh matched the defendants, he said. 
 Also in the house on Aug. 11, 2009, were Mykier Daniels' two young children. 
 "While Mr. Vaughan and Mr. Singletary were torturing these individuals in the backroom, Mykier could be heard screaming for the lives of her children," Biancavilla said. Although he said the defendants left the children, 6 and 2 at the time, to die in the flames, they escaped with the help of a neighbor. 
 "The motive in this case was payback by Hasan Vaughan," Biancavilla said. Three days earlier, Katrice Daniels lured him away from his house so her sister, Calixto and another man could steal his money and a laptop, he said. 
 Vaughan recruited his "old buddy," Singletary, to help, Biancavilla said, and they carried out the crimes together. 
 The two men are being tried together but have separate juries because both may implicate each other as part of their defenses. During the opening statements for each defendant, only the jury for that defendant was in the courtroom. 
 Singletary's attorney, Daniel Russo of <a href="/topics//Westhampton,_NY">Westhampton</a>, said his client had no reason to kill the victims. 
 "Where is the motive for Thomas Singletary to do any of this?" he said. "He beat and tortured people over someone else's laptop?" 
 Vaughan's attorney, William Keahon of <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a>, challenged jurors to keep an open mind despite Biancavilla's powerful opening statement. 
 "Unfortunately, I saw that some your reactions indicated that you were believing some of what he had to say as accepted evidence," Keahon said, as several jurors nodded. "I haven't had an opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses he intended to call, so let's wait . . . to see what these witnesses really say." 
 He reminded jurors that "this fellow, who Mr. Biancavilla keeps pointing at, pleaded not guilty."

Prosecutor: Fire ties 2 defendants to Central Islip murders

The crime scene at the back of a <a href="/topics//Central_Islip,_NY">Central Islip</a> house was uncommonly gory when it was discovered more than three years ago and the trial about to begin in the case will reflect that, a <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> prosecutor warned potential jurors. 
 Jury selection for Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and from Central <a href="/topics//Islip,_NY">Islip</a>, has taken a month so far. They are charged with first-degree murder, accused of torturing and killing three people in August 2009 and then burning down the house with two small children still inside. The children escaped and are expected to testify. The defendants could face life without parole if convicted. 
 "The evidence in this case is going to be gruesome," Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla told potential jurors. "There's no sugarcoating it. Three people were shot. They were stabbed. They were strangled. And then they were lit on fire." 
 Besides the nature of the case, jury selection is taking so long because <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> ruled that each defendant should have a separate jury. 
 Vaughan and Singletary, friends with extensive criminal records, went to the house on Hickory Street after Vaughan's money, heroin and laptop computer were stolen from his apartment, according to court papers. 
 Vaughan's girlfriend, Katrice Daniels, 31, lived at the house. Also there were her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28, and her boyfriend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19. Vaughan believed -- correctly, Biancavilla said -- that they were involved in the theft. 
 Mykier Daniels' children, ages 2 and 6, were in the living room during the ordeal. 
 "There was evidence that she was begging for her children's lives during this," Biancavilla said. 
 Nevertheless, he said the two men splashed gasoline in the house, set it on fire and fled. Both defendants suffered burns, and their DNA was recovered from the crime scene. 
 One of the things on the stolen laptop was a novel Vaughan wrote that described drug deals and retaliatory murders, Vaughan's attorney, William Keahon of <a href="/topics//Hauppauge,_NY">Hauppauge</a>, said in court. It's not clear whether the novel will be evidence at the trial. 
 The attorneys for both men have suggested the other guy could have done it. 
 Shortly before jury selection began, Keahon warned court officers not to have Singletary sit next to him at the defense table. "I'm going to be attacking him," he said. 
 Until <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">Hudson</a> agreed to give both defendants separate juries, Keahon promised that he would act as an extra prosecutor for Singletary. 
 "Mr. Vaughan is not guilty of any of these charges, and I intend to prove it," Keahon said in an interview. "I intend to prove it in the courtroom, and not in the newspaper." 
 Singletary's attorney, Daniel Russo of <a href="/topics//Westhampton,_NY">Westhampton</a>, said that unlike Vaughan, his client "has absolutely no motive to commit these crimes." 
 Singletary was on the verge of cleaning up his life and even reported for substance abuse rehabilitation the day after the slayings, Russo said.

LIVAUG18

Prosecutor: Evidence at murder trial will be 'gruesome'

Yolanda de Jesus of <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a> now knows who has been charged with her son's death. She still wants to know why he was killed.
De Jesus, whose son, Louis Calixto Jr., 19, was found stabbed to death in a burned house in Central Islip last August, said Thursday she believes he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when two men allegedly broke into the home of a friend, Mykier Daniels, 28, and her sister, Katrice, 31.
But she said she does not know whether her son was targeted to be killed.
"We have a lot of questions. We don't want to speculate," de Jesus said outside of court, where one of the men was arraigned Thursday. "We want to know what the truth is so we can go on with our lives."
Prosecutors said Hasan Vaughan, 33, of Central Islip, killed Calixto and Mykier and Katrice Daniels on Aug. 11, and then, with another man, Thomas Singletary, 33, of Central Islip, burned down the sisters' Hickory Street home. Calixto and Mykier Daniels showed signs of being tortured, prosecutors said.
Vaughan pleaded not guilty Thursday in Suffolk County Court in <a href="/topics/Riverhead%2C_NY">Riverhead</a> to one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree arson. He was ordered held without bail by State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs.
Singletary pleaded not guilty last week to second-degree arson.
Vaughan and Singletary burned the house to cover up the "horrible, gruesome murders," Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said. Both men were burned as they fled, he said.
Mykier Daniels regularly drove Calixto to school at the New York Automotive and Diesel Institute in <a href="/topics/Queens%2C_NY">Queens</a>, de Jesus said. Calixto, who wanted to be an auto mechanic like his father, Louis Calixto Sr., was helping Mykier Daniels move to <a href="/topics/Mastic%2C_NY">Mastic</a>, she said.
He had gone to the house for a ride to school when he was killed, de Jesus said. Before Vaughan's arraignment, she said her son had no relationship with either suspect.
"I can't see my son causing so much anger that anyone would do that to him," she said. " . . . We bring kids in this world and we don't expect them to clash with each other."After the arraignment, she said Vaughan came to her house a month before the slayings and asked to see her son. She declined to elaborate.

Crime

LIVAUG05

Mother wants to know why her son was killed

A forensic scientist told jurors Monday that he didn't test every bloodstain for DNA from the burned-out Central Islip house where three people were tortured and killed, and that there was no need to do so. 
 Daniel Cheswick of the <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Crime Laboratory also testified that although some evidence from the crime scene sat in a police warehouse for two years before it was analyzed, it's doubtful DNA degraded in that time. 
 Cheswick finished three weeks of testimony Monday before <a href="/topics//Suffolk_County,_NY">Suffolk</a> County Court Judge <a href="/topics//James_Hudson">James Hudson</a> at the trial of Hasan Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central Islip. They are charged with first-degree murder and arson in the August 2009 deaths of Louis Calixto Jr., 19; his friend, Mykier Daniels, 28; and her sister, Katrice Daniels, 31. 
 During cross-examination by Singletary's attorney, Daniel Russo, Cheswick said he got DNA from two bloodstains on the side-door jamb but didn't test a third. Similarly, he didn't test other stains from the door and a screen door nearby. 
 During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla, Cheswick said there was no need to test every stain when a "representative sample" would do. He found that a piece of charred skin stuck to a door and blood leading from the bodies to the home's exit belonged to the defendants. 
 Russo again questioned the crime lab's control of evidence it collected, a topic frequently raised by the defense in the trial. Much of the evidence was out of the lab's hands for two years while it sat in the police department's property bureau in <a href="/topics//Yaphank,_NY">Yaphank</a>. 
 Cheswick said more than a dozen items from the crime scene came back for testing to the lab after two years, but testing did not recover any DNA from those items, which included a door knob found on Katrice Daniels' body, a knife and keys found in the room with the bodies. 
 "DNA does degrade," Cheswick told Russo. 
 But later, he told Biancavilla that if it's kept dry, it can last decades without refrigeration. He said his inability to find DNA on those items does not necessarily mean it degraded while in the police warehouse. 
 "It's possible it was never there," he said.

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