Long Island

Evans Ganthier case

A Suffolk judge gave the maximum prison sentence to a Port Jefferson Station man Monday, telling the defendant that his story of mutilating a Medford woman's body, dumping it in Connecticut and setting it on fire -- all because of her accidental death -- "makes no sense." 
Although Evans Ganthier, 33, told police that Rebecca Koster, 24, died after tripping over dumbbells in his garage on Dec. 4, 2009, a jury convicted him in August of second-degree murder, finding that he stabbed her to death after meeting her hours earlier in a Holbrook bar.
State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro imposed a sentence of 25 years to life in prison. Ambro told Ganthier that his "unthinkably cruel" behavior after Koster's death "lends strong support to the idea that her death was not an accident. . . . Neither I nor the jury believes you."
Ganthier told police that after Koster died, he cut off her fingers, toes, nose, ears and tattoos before taking her body to Connecticut. He denied killing her and said he only wanted to hide her identity. 
Then, when he realized he was the last person in contact with Koster, he told police he used her phone to text her mother, posing as the victim, and claiming to be alive and held captive in her boyfriend's basement. 
Koster's mother, Barbara Ross, told Ambro her life will never be the same.
"I cry every day for my daughter, sometimes for hours at a time," she said. Turning to Ganthier, with a voice hardened by anger, she continued, "I had to hear how you destroyed my Becky. No mother should ever see her daughter like that. . . . I hate you. I hate you with every cell of my being. I hope that everything you did to Becky is done to you."
Koster's stepfather, Larry Ross, told Ambro he was struck during the trial by Ganthier's behavior.
"His lack of remorse and indifferent attitude -- the attitude he has shown through the entire ordeal -- is unacceptable, unforgivable and leaves me with no doubts that the next time a pretty girl refuses him, he would have no hesitation in taking their life, just as he took the life of our beautiful Becky," he said.
Ganthier waited impassively for his turn to speak, glancing occasionally at his parents in the back of the courtroom. Ganthier said the evidence that Koster was stabbed was weak.
"I feel the appellate courts will see I am an innocent man," he said. He apologized to Koster's family for their loss.
Afterward, Barbara Ross said the sentencing was "bittersweet."
"The only thing that's going to bring us peace is to know he'll never walk the earth again," she said. "Until we hear he is dead, there is no closure."
Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson dismissed Ganthier's chances for a successful appeal, saying: "That's all silliness. I think the cause of death is clear."

Suffolk

LIGANT01

Evans Ganthier gets 25 years to life sentence in Rebecca Koster slaying

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A Suffolk jury convicted a Port Jefferson Station man Thursday of stabbing a Medford woman to death before he dismembered her body, took it to Connecticut and set it on fire.
The jury's guilty verdict was greeted in the courtroom by gasps and sobs of relief from the family of Rebecca Koster, 24. She met the defendant, Evans Ganthier, in a Holbrook bar hours before her death on Dec. 4, 2009.
Ganthier, 33, stared briefly at jurors after he heard the verdict convicting him of second-degree murder.
State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro said he would sentence Ganthier on Sept. 30. The maximum penalty is 25 years to life in prison.
Ganthier told Ambro he would like to challenge the verdict. The judge told him his lawyer would do that for him.
"This is like the best day of my life," Koster's mother, Barbara Ross, exulted afterward. "Becky, we got him! We got you justice!"
Ganthier's family left the courthouse in Riverhead without commenting. Defense attorney William Keahon also declined to comment.
The jury deliberated 51/2 hours. Jurors left soon after their verdict, avoiding talking to the attorneys.
"We're very grateful to the jury for their swift justice for the family," Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson said.
The case was remarkably gruesome. Throughout the trial, jurors endured photographs of Koster's charred and dismembered body. They listened to Suffolk homicide Det. Phillip Frendo describe how Ganthier denied stabbing Koster, but admitted cutting off her fingers, toes, ears, nose and tattoos before taking the body on the ferry from Port Jefferson to Connecticut, where he set it on fire on the side of a road in North Stonington.
Later, after Koster's family and friends realized he was the last person to contact her, Ganthier used Koster's phone to send text messages to her mother, claiming she was being held captive by her boyfriend.
Keahon told jurors that his client was "despicable," "abhorrent" and "shameful" for what he did after Koster died, but he said a shoddy autopsy called the cause of Koster's death into question.
Ganthier told police that Koster began gagging in his car on the way to his house, and then tripped over some dumbbells in his garage and died a short time later.
Keahon argued that the fatal wound to Koster's liver could have come from falling hard to the floor and not from being stabbed.
But Albertson told jurors that the defense theory made no sense.
"In the end, the jury saw through the defendant's silly story for what it is," the prosecutor said after the verdict.
As thrilled as they were with the result, Koster's family said attending the trial every day for the past month was excruciating.
"It was horrible," said Koster's stepfather, Larry Ross.
"It's been a complete nightmare," said her brother, Damian Ross, 18.

LIGANT30

Evans Ganthier found guilty in 2009 stabbing death of Rebecca Koster

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The attorney for a Port Jefferson Station man charged with stabbing a Medford woman to death conceded that his client mutilated her and set her body on fire, but told jurors Tuesday there's no proof he killed her.
Defense lawyer William Keahon said the actions of his client, Evans Ganthier, 33, after the death on Dec. 4, 2009, of Rebecca Koster, 24, were "despicable," "abhorrent" and "shameful."
"There is no question that Evans Ganthier removed parts of Becky's body," Keahon said in his closing argument, which he had not finished Tuesday after three hours of talking. "There is no question that he set her body on fire ... But there is no credible proof that he stabbed her in the abdomen."
Keahon will finish Wednesday in state Supreme Court in Riverhead, and Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson will make her case before the jury begins deliberating.
Ganthier is charged with second-degree murder in Koster's death. Prosecutors say he stabbed her hours after meeting her in a Holbrook bar and dumped her body in Connecticut. Keahon said she drunkenly fell in Ganthier's garage and the impact tore her liver and killed her.
Keahon said prosecutors were counting on what Ganthier did after Koster died to make up for a lack of evidence that his client killed her.
"I know it's extremely difficult for you not to convict him right now because of what he did to her body," he said. "Probably eight of you want to do so right now."
Keahon focused on the Koster autopsy report and the testimony of Connecticut's retired chief medical examiner, Dr. Harold Wayne Carver. Keahon said both were deficient.
Although witnesses said Koster smoked marijuana before going out and had several drinks, the autopsy found no alcohol or drugs in her bloodstream. 
That intoxication -- perhaps augmented by Vicodin use her boyfriend testified about -- could account for how Ganthier described her behavior to police, Keahon said. He said she was gagging on the way to his house and unsteady on her feet before she hit the floor, Keahon said.
But even worse, Keahon said, was the cause of death Carver found. Carver testified she was stabbed in the liver, but Keahon said the external wound was six to eight inches below the liver, and nothing in between that wound and the liver was cut.
"It's impossible," he said. "It's incredible."
Carver also testified an X-ray showed an air bubble in Koster's heart, a sign that she was stabbed in the neck while alive. Keahon noted the autopsy said the neck wounds caused no bleeding or serious damage.
"It's hocus-pocus," Keahon said of Carver's theory.

LIGANT28

Ganthier's lawyer: Client 'despicable,' but not killer

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Written statements police took from the man charged with killing a Medford woman don't include everything he said -- particularly his insistence that he didn't stab her, a homicide detective acknowledged during two days of cross-examination that ended Friday.
Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station, is on trial before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro, charged with second-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Koster, 24.
Defense attorney William Keahon spent much of the past two days focusing on how Det. Phillip Frendo interrogated his client and crafted two written statements that acknowledge Ganthier dumped Koster's body in Connecticut.
In the end, Frendo said Ganthier told him he cut off Koster's fingers, toes, ears, nose and tattoos and set her body on fire, but insisted he didn't kill her early on Dec. 4, 2009, not long after meeting her in a Holbrook bar.
Instead, Ganthier said Koster had been gagging in his car on his way to his house, and then tripped over some dumbbells in his garage and hit her head, Frendo testified. She died in his car on the way to the hospital and then Ganthier said he panicked, according to Frendo.
At all stages of police interviews on Dec. 14, 2009, and Feb. 8, 2010, Frendo said Ganthier did what detectives asked. He never put limits on what he'd discuss or put a stop to the interrogation, Frendo said.
"He didn't ask to leave, did he?" Keahon said. "He didn't say, 'I'm a little tired, I've been with you guys for nine hours.' "
Frendo agreed, but he balked at Keahon's suggestion that Ganthier was "cooperative."
"Not in the sense that he was telling the truth," Frendo said.
"So you're the person who decided what the truth was," Keahon said.
"I knew what the truth was, based on the evidence," the detective replied.
An autopsy indicated Koster died from being stabbed in the abdomen, cutting her liver. Ganthier insisted repeatedly he didn't stab her.
Frendo acknowledged he controlled what went in Ganthier's statements. He wrote them before Ganthier had a chance to make changes or additions.
Frendo told Keahon he didn't include Ganthier's denials that he stabbed Koster. "I also didn't put in that he did stab her," Frendo said.
Despite Ganthier's claims that Koster bled all over his garage floor and that his clothes were covered in blood, Frendo said forensic scientists could find no evidence of Koster's presence at his home.
Ganthier said he scrubbed and painted the garage floor after he returned from Connecticut, according to Frendo.
Keahon wondered why, if his client was so agreeable, Frendo didn't push for more detail from Ganthier and document it in further statements.
"You could have asked him for four more written statements, couldn't you?" Keahon asked.
"I don't know," Frendo said. "I didn't."

LIGANT24

Detective testifies in Ganthier murder trial

With every piece of evidence that a homicide detective revealed to a Port Jefferson Station man being questioned in a killing, the man conceded he did more things to a Medford woman found on fire and mutilated in Connecticut, the detective testified Tuesday.
But Det. Phillip Frendo testified that when he told Evans Ganthier, 33, that Rebecca Koster, 24, had been stabbed to death in December 2009, Ganthier denied doing that.
Frendo testified before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro at Ganthier's trial on a second-degree murder charge.
"Why would I stab her?" Ganthier told him, Frendo testified. "We were only hanging out."
Ganthier told him he picked up Koster at her house about 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 4 after meeting her earlier that night at a Holbrook bar, Frendo testified. On the way to his house, she started gagging and then she tripped over dumbbells in his garage and hit her head, Frendo testified Ganthier told him. Ganthier then said he was taking her to the nearby John T. Mather Memorial Hospital, but she died in the car, so he turned around, Frendo testified.
Frendo asked why Ganthier didn't continue to the hospital, and Ganthier replied that it would "look bad if a black man drove up to the hospital with a dead white woman." Ganthier said he panicked, took her body to Connecticut and cut off her fingers, toes, ears, nose and tattoos, Frendo testified.
Because the Connecticut medical examiner's office had not yet determined how Koster had died, Frendo testified the charges against Ganthier were withdrawn Dec. 15, 2009, and he was released. But after the office determined she died of a stab wound to her liver, Frendo testified Ganthier was arrested again Feb. 8, 2010. Frendo testified Ganthier told him the same story until he told Ganthier about the stab wound.
"He squinted his eyes and said, 'Don't say that,' " Frendo testified. Then Ganthier said he couldn't have stabbed her because he's righthanded and he "doesn't even know where the liver is," Frendo testified.
Ganthier suggested asking Koster's parents if she'd had a stab wound to her liver for some time, "like it was some kind of condition," Frendo testified.
Ganthier then said he was "not a knife kind of person," Frendo testified. "I said, 'But you used a knife to cut off pieces of her body.' "
Ganthier got upset and said he did that only to hide her identity, Frendo testified.
Frendo's testimony continues Wednesday.

LIGANT21

Detective: Defendant conceded mutilations but not stabbing

In less than two hours, a Port Jefferson Station man went from denying he'd gone out the night a Medford woman disappeared to acknowledging that she died in his company and that he'd taken her body to Connecticut and set it on fire, a Suffolk homicide detective testified Monday.
"If I told you what happened, you would not believe me," Evans Ganthier, 33, said as his story evolved, according to Det. Phillip Frendo.
Ganthier is on trial before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro in Riverhead. He is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Rebecca Koster, 24, accused of stabbing and mutilating her.
Koster disappeared in the early hours of Dec. 4, 2009, after going out with friends to Butcher Boys Bar &amp; Grill in Holbrook. Her body was on fire when it was found that night in North Stonington, Conn.
Frendo said he took over the investigation a week later after Koster's body had been identified and after thumbprints found on duct tape on her body were traced to Ganthier. Police arrested him the morning of Dec. 13 at his girlfriend's home in the Bronx.
Frendo said he questioned Ganthier about the night of Dec. 3. Ganthier said he remembered clearly that he didn't go out that night because it was his sister's birthday, Frendo said. Ganthier said he spent the next few days with his girlfriend, Frendo testified during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson.
After Frendo asked if he liked to go out to bars, Ganthier said he did, and that "he's met a lot of girls the last few weeks. . . . He said girls would get drunk, jump in his car and he'd drive them home."
Frendo said he told Ganthier there was video of him at Butcher Boys talking with women early on Dec. 4, and Ganthier said he was there. "He just forgot that night, because he [said he] had a bad memory," Frendo said.
Bit by bit, Frendo said Ganthier's story evolved, with help of evidence he presented to Ganthier. After Frendo told Ganthier about the thumbprints, Ganthier said he did pick her up at her home. On the way to his home, he said she started gagging, then tripped over dumbbells in his garage and hit her head, Frendo testified.
Frendo said Ganthier told him he was going to take her to the hospital, but she died on the way. He panicked, went home, wrapped the body in plastic and took the ferry to Connecticut, he testified.

LIGANT20

Homicide detective testifies how suspect's story evolved

A pool of blood beneath the driver's seat of a Port Jefferson Station man's Mercedes-Benz matched the DNA of the woman he's accused of killing and mutilating, a Suffolk forensic scientist testified Friday.
So did bloodstains from both sides of the sport utility vehicle's center console, the back of the driver's seat and the right rear door pocket, said Diane Shkoditch.
She testified before state Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro at the trial of Evans Ganthier, 33. Charged with second-degree murder, he is accused of stabbing to death Rebecca Koster, 24, of Medford, before taking her body, in the Mercedes, on the ferry to Bridgeport, Conn., and mutilating it before setting it on fire.
Shkoditch's testimony during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson is the clearest so far that Koster met with violence in Ganthier's company. She said the odds of the blood belonging to anyone but Koster were 1 in 28.9 quintillion.
"That number has 18 zeros on the end," she told jurors.
Witnesses, backed by surveillance video, have testified that Ganthier and Koster met after midnight on Dec. 4, 2009, at a Holtsville bar and exchanged phone numbers.
After Koster's boyfriend dropped her at home about 3:30 a.m., phone records show that Ganthier called at 4:10 a.m. and they talked for more than 16 minutes.
Police say Ganthier told them that Koster tripped over some dumbbells in his garage, hit her head and died soon afterward. But Dr. Harold Carver, a Connecticut medical examiner, testified last week that she had no head injury and that she died from being stabbed in the liver and the neck.
Carver acknowledged during cross-examination by defense attorney William Keahon that no knife wound was found to a vein in her neck and that it's possible -- but unlikely -- that the injury to her liver could have been caused by falling.
Ganthier's thumb prints were found on duct tape wrapped around Koster's burning body, authorities said.

LIGANT17

Witness: Blood in suspect's car matches victim DNA

One of the knife wounds that killed a Medford woman who was later found mutilated and on fire in Connecticut pierced her skin next to her belly button, yet sliced into the left side of her liver, a medical examiner testified Friday.
Dr. Harold Carver, the recently retired Connecticut chief medical examiner, struggled during cross-examination to explain how that could happen to Rebecca Koster, 24. 
Carver acknowledged that Dr. Ira Kanfer, who performed the autopsy in December 2009, did not document the path the knife took in Koster's body, nor did he measure the depth of the injury to her liver.
It was Carver's second day on the witness stand at the trial of Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station, before State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro. Ganthier is charged with second-degree murder.
Defense attorney William Keahon had Carver mark the places where he said Koster was stabbed. Keahon borrowed Carver's brass-handled cane to note the distance between the external wound and the liver in a photograph shown on a screen.
Carver said the stomach would normally be between the stab wound and the liver, but there was no record of any injury to the stomach.
Police say Ganthier told them that Koster tripped in his garage and hit the floor hard and died. He told detectives he panicked and took the body to Connecticut and mutilated and burned it.
With a photo of the liver's wound on the screen, Carver conceded that although he believed it was caused by a knife, it was possible an abrupt fall could have caused the liver to rip.
At a break in testimony, a smiling Ganthier whispered "thank you" to Keahon.
Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson acknowledged the autopsy's shortcomings in asking Carver, "Is it fair to say that Dr. Kanfer could have done a little bit more than he did?"
"Yes, that's fair," Carver answered.
But he agreed with Albertson's suggestion that a knife entering near the belly button could have pierced the liver without traveling through the stomach if Koster were stabbed during a struggle.
"Organs move when you move," Carver said, agreeing that if Koster was bent over when she was stabbed, the liver might have been closer to the navel.
When Keahon expressed doubt about that, Carver said, "All I can tell you is, things move around and it's possible."

LIGANT10

Stab wound to liver detailed in Ganthier murder trial

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Connecticut's former chief medical examiner told a jury Thursday that a Medford woman whose body was dumped in his state died from stab wounds to her neck and abdomen, but conceded during cross-examination that he never examined her body himself and that there is no documentation for some of his findings.
Dr. Harold Carver, the recently retired chief medical examiner, testified in State Supreme Court in Riverhead about an autopsy performed by one of his employees, Dr. Ira Kanfer. Using Kanfer's report and autopsy photos, Carver said he concluded that Rebecca Koster, 24, died from stab wounds to her liver and her neck, which allowed air to get into her heart and stop it.
During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson, he said he came to that conclusion by examining a chest X-ray of Koster's body, which he said showed a pocket of air in her heart.
He testified at the trial of Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station. Ganthier is accused of killing Koster on Dec. 4, 2009, and then taking the body to Connecticut, where he mutilated it and set it on fire.
During a combative cross-examination, defense attorney William Keahon attacked the credibility of Carver's office, noting one of his assistants is facing perjury charges in Massachusetts, and asked why Carver was on the stand at all instead of Kanfer.
"Is Dr. Kanfer ill or sick, or anything like that?" Keahon asked. "Is he on vacation?"
Carver said nothing prevented Kanfer from testifying. Kanfer's autopsy report said nothing about the neck wounds contributing to Koster's death or about an air pocket in her heart.
Carver told Keahon there was no report or note documenting his finding that there was air in her heart, nor did he recall telling Kanfer about his finding.
"You just made that up, didn't you?" Keahon said. Carver, who sighed often and heavily throughout Keahon's questioning, angrily replied he would never commit perjury.
"Well, your Dr. Frank Evangelista is charged with perjury, isn't he?" Keahon said.
"That's a bogus charge," Carver replied.
He said he agreed with Kanfer's report finding no injuries in the "soft tissue or vital organs of the neck," but said Kanfer may have missed a cut to a jugular vein that sucked air into the heart.
"As Sherlock Holmes said, sometimes you look and don't see," Carver said.
"Didn't he also say that sometimes you see things that aren't there?" Keahon replied.
Police say that Ganthier told them after his arrest that Koster tripped over some dumbbells in his garage, hit her head and died soon afterward. They say he told them he panicked and cut off her fingers, toes, ears, nose and tattoos and dumped the body in Connecticut.
Carver said the autopsy showed no head injuries and that the wound to her liver would not have been caused by a fall.

LIGANT09

Former Conn. chief ME testifies at Riverhead murder trial

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A Medford woman's last hours before she disappeared more than three years ago were happy and fun, spent partying with friends, her mother and best friend testified Tuesday in state Supreme Court in Riverhead. 
 "She was beautiful," said Barbara Ross, the mother of Rebecca Koster, 24. "She was perfect." 
 She and Koster's best friend, Nicole Longo, said Koster bought some marijuana early on Dec. 3, 2009, and went out to bars in Patchogue and Holbrook that night. 
 Suffolk prosecutors say she met Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station, at the second bar that night. They say he stabbed her to death early on Dec. 4, took her body to Connecticut, mutilated it and set it on fire. He is charged with second-degree murder. 
 The days after Koster failed to show up for work on Dec. 4 were punctuated by confusion and terror, particularly two days later when Koster's mother got two unnerving text messages from her daughter's phone. 
 The first one referred to her boyfriend at the time. 
 "Mom Dan has me tied up in basement he thinks im messing with someone else not sure where im at maybe commack he doesnt know i have my phone please help," said the first one. 
 Ross and Longo testified they and a bunch of friends raced to the boyfriend's home with police. "It was just a whole herd of us," Ross said. 
 But police found she wasn't there. Hours later, another text came. It said: "My phone is about to die and my mouth is taped cant talk and dont tell Dan he will kill me i think this is commack." 
 This time, Ross said her husband and Koster's stepfather, Larry Ross, checked the phone's location on their computer. It showed it was in Hauppauge. Again, they raced there with police, and again, she was not there. By then, her body had been found but not identified in North Stonington, Conn. 
 Longo and Ross said that Koster had recently recovered from a brief addiction to OxyContin after a back injury. She smoked marijuana daily and liked to go out with friends, but held a part-time job caring for a disabled child. 
 Longo said the night began with them drinking and smoking in Koster's garage. Then they went to Kelly's, a Patchogue bar, until 1:30 a.m. Longo said she went home while everyone else, including Koster and her boyfriend Dan Mayor, continued on to Butcher Boy's in Holbrook. 
 Jurors and Justice Richard Ambro watched video from the bar's security system showing Koster at the bar. At about 2:30 a.m., a man resembling Ganthier waved her over and both appear to enter information into their phones while talking. The video shows her having two or three drinks there. 
 About an hour after she returned home at 3:30 a.m., she&nbsp;received a call from&nbsp;a number that Ross said was unfamiliar, which prosecutors say belonged to Ganthier. 
 Other than the text messages two days later, it was the last activity on her phone. 
 CORRECTION: An earlier version of this&nbsp;story&nbsp;misstated who contacted whom after&nbsp;Ganthier and&nbsp;Koster&nbsp;met at a bar.

LIGANT31

Mom, best friend testify in murder trial

The more Connecticut State Police examined a body found burning by the side of a dark country road, the more violence they found inflicted on it, a detective testified Friday in State Supreme Court in Riverhead.
Once the fire was extinguished on Dec. 4, 2009, Det. Priscilla Vining said, some details were immediately apparent.
Using photographs to illustrate what she saw by the side of the road, Vining said she could see blankets and melted plastic garbage bags on top of the person's head. Looking more closely, Vining said she saw an ear and part of the nose was missing, as were the fingers on the left hand.
She testified before Justice Richard Ambro at the trial of Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station. He is charged with second-degree murder, accused of stabbing and mutilating Rebecca Koster, 24, of Medford, before setting her body on fire in North Stonington, Conn.
Prosecutors say he killed her after meeting her at a Holbrook bar the night before.
During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson, Vining said the victim was unburned on the back, and a section of the lower back had been cut out.
At the base of her throat, Vining identified four small stab wounds. An autopsy showed she died from a stab wound to her liver.
Days later, after Connecticut police put out a description of the body, it was identified as Koster's both through a tongue stud with a butterfly on it and dental records.
During cross-examination by defense attorney William Keahon, Vining said she helped Suffolk police interview possible witnesses. One man, Anthony Castro, told police that Koster called him at 3:30 a.m. asking to meet after she got home from the bar, but he declined.
Albertson said phone records will show Koster called Ganthier less than an hour later.
Ganthier told detectives that Koster tripped, fell and hit her head while walking in his garage. She died soon after and he panicked, so he cut off all her fingers, toes, ears, nose and a tattoo of a butterfly on her back, he told detectives.

LIGANT27

On the last night that a pretty, young Medford woman was seen alive, she and her friends were the targets of intense attention from a man at a Holbrook bar, a Suffolk prosecutor told jurors Wednesday. 
 The next time Rebecca Koster, 24, was seen by anyone other than that man -- Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station -- she was dead, on fire, mutilated and wrapped in sheets, blankets and garbage bags by the side of a Connecticut back road, Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson said during her opening argument in a packed courtroom. 
 Ganthier is charged with second-degree murder in the Dec. 4, 2009, killing. 
 Koster was out with friends the night of Dec. 3 at Butcher Boys Bar &amp; Grill in Holbrook. Ganthier was there, "obviously, aggressively hitting on girls," Albertson said. Koster, in particular, drew his attention, even though her boyfriend was with her, Albertson said. 
 After she arrived home, Ganthier called her cellphone shortly before 4:30 a.m. and she agreed to meet him. 
 "Rebecca Koster made a very foolish mistake, as a young girl," Albertson said. "We do know that her mistake was fatal." 
 The next person who saw her was Russell Morrison, who was driving on Jeremy Hill Road to his home in Stonington, Conn., about 7:15 p.m. 
 "It's really a back road," he testified Wednesday. "It's dark, quiet and sleepy." He said he saw what seemed to be a brush fire, but when he looked closer, it appeared to be a body. 
 The audience included District Attorney Thomas Spota and members of both Koster's and Ganthier's families. Ganthier blew a kiss to his family as he entered the courtroom. 
 Koster's stepfather, Larry Ross, said he was glad the trial finally was underway. 
 "I just want justice for my daughter," he said. 
 Defense attorney William Keahon cautioned jurors that the case may not unfold the way Albertson says and reminded them that Ganthier is presumed innocent. 
 "I intend to bring out facts which the district attorney chooses not to," he said. 
 It was days before the body was identified as Koster's through dental records. In the meantime, Albertson said, her family got texts from her phone in which someone posing as her claimed to be held captive by her boyfriend. Police searched his house and found no one. 
 Police were led to Ganthier by the calls he made to Koster's phone and by two thumbprints on duct tape wrapped on her body, Albertson said. 
 Ganthier later told police that he just wanted to talk to Koster that night, and wasn't interested in sex or drugs with her. Albertson scoffed at that. 
 "It wasn't the left side of his brain he was interested in stimulating," she told jurors. 
 Ganthier then told detectives Koster tripped, fell and hit her head while walking in his garage. She died soon after and he panicked, so he cut off all her fingers, toes, ears, nose and a tattoo of a butterfly on her back, he told detectives, Albertson said. 
 He took her remains on the Port Jefferson ferry to Connecticut, doused her body with gasoline and left it for Morrison to find, Albertson said.

LIGANT25

Testimony begins in mutilation case

The murder trial about to start in Riverhead already is remarkable for the potential jurors who hustled to escape the courtroom after they told the court they were nauseated by the graphic outline of the case.
In the past two weeks, during jury selection, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson has repeatedly warned prospective jurors that the evidence in the case against Evans Ganthier, 33, of Port Jefferson Station will be upsetting.
She has told potential jurors that Ganthier was accused of more than merely stabbing to death Rebecca Koster, 24, of Medford in December 2009. Ganthier is charged with second-degree murder in Koster's death and faces 25 years to life if convicted.
"You're going to hear very, very gruesome and very, very graphic details about what was done to Becky's body," Albertson told them. She warned potential jurors that they will hear how Ganthier cut off all the fingertips, toes, ears, nose, hair and two tattoos of the woman and then set her body on fire.
Albertson said the evidence will show Ganthier did all this not just to obscure the identity of Koster's body, which he dumped in Connecticut, but to cover up evidence of what he did.
"If you're going to sit on this case, you have to be able to see and hear this evidence," she told potential jurors.
"I can't do it," one woman said. "Just listening to you is disturbing."
"I'm getting a little squeamish right now," one man said, shakily. "It would probably make me sick to my stomach."
Another man said, "I've got major cotton mouth right now. My stomach is in knots."
State Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro excused them and numerous others who said the case was too repulsive for them to hear fairly.
During jury selection, defense attorney William Keahon of Hauppauge has focused on whether innocent people can be charged with crimes, and if detectives ever lie in court.
"I'll address the claimed evidence in the courtroom" during the trial, he said.
That evidence includes video recordings showing Ganthier and Koster together at a bar the night she was killed and Ganthier on the ferry from Port Jefferson to Bridgeport the next morning.
It also includes statements Ganthier made to detectives in which they say he admitted dismembering, dumping and burning Koster's body.
He denied stabbing her, however. Detectives say he told them Koster tripped over some dumbbells in his garage and cracked her head, then died while he drove her to the hospital.
Albertson has said an autopsy showed no sign of any head injury.

Graphic details in murder case repel possible jurors

In the months after he mutilated the body of a Medford woman whom he denied killing, a Port Jefferson Station man told a Suffolk homicide detective he had been "so upset" about it, the detective testified Friday in State Supreme Court.
"He said he's not eating anymore or going to bars to pick up girls," said Det. Philip Frendo, testifying about his interrogation of Evans Ganthier after arresting him on Feb. 8, 2010. "He said he could just picture someone doing something like this to his sister."
The something Ganthier was referring to was cutting off all the fingertips and toes, both ears, nose, hair and two tattoos from the body of Rebecca Koster, whom he'd met in a bar, Frendo testified. Then Ganthier took the body on the ferry to Connecticut, where he set it on fire.
But he consistently denied stabbing Koster to death, insisting instead that she tripped over dumbbells in his garage and hit her head, Frendo said. 
"He said he and his girlfriend were always tripping on stuff on the floor," Frendo said.
Frendo was testifying at a pretrial hearing to determine whether Ganthier's statements will be admissible at trial. Justice Richard Ambro will rule after the hearing concludes next week.
Ganthier was so upset that he couldn't enjoy himself with his girlfriend in Atlantic City and told her what he'd done, Frendo said.
"I told him I was surprised he would tell her," Frendo said, adding that Ganthier told him his girlfriend was upset.
"I said that's understandable," Frendo said. "She may feel she's next."
"That's exactly what she said," Ganthier replied, according to Frendo.
Ganthier later asked if he could meet Koster's family to apologize, but Frendo said Det. Susan Nolan suggested he write them a letter instead.
"After she passed away, I should have reacted the right way, but like a self-centered idiot, I panicked," he wrote in the letter, which police retained. "I sorry for all the things to her body."

LIGANT15

Detective: Evans Ganthier 'so upset' over mutilating Rebecca Koster's body

A Port Jefferson Station man said he panicked one night after a woman he had just met tripped on 50-pound dumbbells in his garage, hit her head and died, and that's why he mutilated her and took her body on the ferry to Connecticut, where he set it on fire, a detective testified Thursday. 
 However, Evans Ganthier denied stabbing Rebecca Koster the night of Dec. 13, 2009, Det. Philip Frendo testified at a pretrial hearing in state Supreme Court before Justice Richard Ambro to determine the admissibility at trial of statements Ganthier made. 
 Ganthier, 33, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Koster, of Copiague. 
 During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Janet Albertson, Frendo said Ganthier initially couldn't recall the last time he'd been at Butcher Boys Bar &amp; Grill in Holbrook. But when Frendo said he told Ganthier they had video of him there that night, he acknowledged meeting Koster there, but resisted saying what happened later. 
 "If I told you what happened, you wouldn't believe me," Ganthier said, according to Frendo. 
 Frendo told him to go ahead, and Ganthier said he drove Koster to his home in his mother's Mercedes-Benz sport utility vehicle. She started to gag on the way there, so he brought her in to get her water, he said, according to Frendo. 
 After she tripped on the dumbbells, Ganthier put her back in the truck to take her to John T. Mather Memorial Hospital in Port Jefferson, but she died before they got there, Frendo said Ganthier told him. 
 That's when he said he panicked. He said he cut off her hair, fingertips, toes, nose and two tattoos so she wouldn't be identified, wrapped her in plastic and a photo backdrop, took her on the ferry from Port Jefferson and found a motel just off Interstate 95, Frendo said. 
 Frendo said Ganthier first told him the mutilation took place in his garage, but later said he did it in Connecticut. He said he scattered the body parts he cut off across southern Connecticut. 
 He rested until dark and found a spot in North Stonington where he dumped the body and poured gasoline on it, he said, according to Frendo. "Then he lit Rebecca on fire and drove away," Frendo said. When her phone got text messages from her family, he posed as her and said she was being held captive by her boyfriend, Frendo said. 
 "He said he knows that it looks bad," Frendo said. "He stated that his girl-chasing days finally caught up with him." 
 But Frendo said he denied stabbing her, saying he had no reason to do it.

LIGANT07

Detective: Slaying suspect 'panicked'

liMURDscpd1

Suffolk County police investigated 50 homicides last year, more than in almost 20 years, and so far have solved fewer than half of them. 
The 44-percent closure rate so far for 2010 homicides is the lowest in recent memory, police in Suffolk said. 
The troubling spike in homicides, coupled with those that remain unsolved, has sparked concern both within and outside the Suffolk department. Police Commissioner <a href="/topics/Richard_Dormer">Richard Dormer</a> characterized both the numbers of homicides and the lower than usual percentage closed as anomalies. He said both factors have been driven in large part by gang violence - cases that are notoriously difficult to resolve because witnesses and even the families of victims are often loath to cooperate. Suspected serial killings like the deaths of four women whose remains were found in December along Gilgo Beach also frustrate detectives. 
<a href="/topics/Richard_Dormer">Dormer</a> said the department has made no significant changes to homicide squad personnel numbers or case management in recent years that would account for a dropping year end clearance rate, and said he was confident some of the homicides would be solved during 2011. The latest one solved with an arrest Friday night brought the number resolved to 22 of 50. 
"There is nothing we can point a finger at here," he said. 
Department officials say year-end clearance rates often rise in subsequent years as older cases get solved with arrests and trials. "There are a number of [unsolved] cases from last year that are at an advanced investigative stage and likely to be resolved very soon," said Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky, commanding officer of Suffolk's homicide squad. 
Pelkofsky noted the department also resolved several cases in 2010 for slayings that occurred in previous years. Among them were arrests for the murder of Rebecca Koster, 24, of <a href="/topics/Copiague%2C_NY">Copiague</a>, whose burned body was recovered in <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> in December 2009, and for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Jaquan Jones outside his <a href="/topics/Wyandanch%2C_NY">Wyandanch</a> home in 2008. 
Overall, Suffolk cops have resolved nearly 84 percent of homicides that occurred between 2005 to 2009. 
&nbsp; 
<a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> police close 66% 
In <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a>, the department says it solved 78 percent of cases between 2005 and 2009. And in 2010, <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> said it had resolved 18 homicides, or 66 percent. Unlike Suffolk, however, some of these <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> homicides, may have occurred in prior years. 
Still, some local officials said reductions in police personnel - the department now has about 100 fewer uniformed officers and 35 fewer total detectives than it did five years ago, according to police unions - was probably a factor in the homicide spike and closure rates. 
"When you have a murder rate that is up, you need more detectives, and the only way to get more detectives is to have more patrol officers," said Suffolk Legis. Jack Eddington (I-<a href="/topics/Medford%2C_NY">Medford</a>), who heads the public safety committee. "They have to come from somewhere. What I believe is if we had more officers in more places, we could reduce it." 
The rise in homicides last year defied a national trend toward fewer murders, and was the exception to a 10-percent drop in violent crime in Suffolk. Homicides in Suffolk accounted for about 2.4 percent of overall violent crime. 
The county's troubling year of homicides began on Jan. 13, 2010, in a barrage of gunshots in a <a href="/topics/North_Amityville%2C_NY">North Amityville</a> parking lot that left two men wounded and one dead. The year ended with the stabbing death of a 23-year-old <a href="/topics/Bay_Shore%2C_NY">Bay Shore</a> man on Dec. 21. Both cases are unsolved. 
Between those cases, the county's homicides covered a wide spectrum of circumstances and victims; some led to arrests. A 19-year-old taxi driver was shot to death in a robbery; a <a href="/topics/Bay_Shore%2C_NY">Bay Shore</a> woman allegedly stabbed by her estranged husband; four children younger than 2 were slain in separate incidents; and a soured love triangle resulted in two murders and a suicide, police said. 
In the wake of a spate of violence that peaked last summer in <a href="/topics/Huntington_Station%2C_NY">Huntington Station</a>, Suffolk police beefed up patrols in certain zones where much of the violence had occurred and say it has reduced gang-related violence significantly. 
All told it was the highest number of recorded homicides in Suffolk since 1992, where there were 57, a spike that police said was fueled by violence surrounding the crack cocaine trade. 
&nbsp; 
Several factors blamed 
Experts on crime trends said a range of factors can affect how many killers are put behind bars: the quantity and experience levels of detectives, case management and, of course, luck - though none as significant as the circumstances of the killings themselves. 
The methodical practices of serial killers, including targeting strangers, make those cases especially difficult to resolve. By contrast, killings by a spouse, partner, or family member are among those with the highest closure rates. 
Most killings last year with suspected gang links occurred in a handful of Suffolk communities, including <a href="/topics/Huntington_Station%2C_NY">Huntington Station</a>, <a href="/topics/Brentwood%2C_NY">Brentwood</a> and <a href="/topics/Central_Islip%2C_NY">Central Islip</a>. At least 10 unsolved cases in Suffolk last year are suspected of having some gang connection, presenting investigators with special challenges. 
In gang killings "associates of the victim, the witnesses, are themselves often heavily criminally involved and don't have much incentive to come forward," said Richard Rosenfeld, a criminology professor at the <a href="/topics/University_of_Missouri">University of Missouri</a>-<a href="/topics/St_Louis">St. Louis</a> and an expert on crime trends. "Forensics help, but for a homicide investigation to lead to an arrest, witnesses remain fundamental." 
&nbsp; 
State cops solve 1 of 2 cases 
In addition to the 50 homicides investigated by Suffolk police last year, State Police in Suffolk closed one of two killings on state property last year with the arrest of Pedro Jones, 20, in the beating death of his girlfriend's 17-month-old son. The case of a suspected <a href="/topics/MS-13">MS-13</a> gang member found shot to death in <a href="/topics/North_Bay_Shore%2C_NY">North Bay Shore</a> is unsolved. 
<a href="/topics/Richard_Dormer">Dormer</a> said he had no plans to make changes in personnel or procedure based on the year end's closure rate. He said homicide detectives have great leeway in how they pursue cases, including unlimited overtime. He said he was confident many cases recorded in 2010 will be solved, including the Gilgo killings. 
"We have brought other [detectives] in . . . and homicide is still investigating other murders. They have not put them aside because of the four bodies in Gilgo," he said. 
Four detectives who usually investigate felonies other than homicides have been reassigned to a task force on the Gilgo Beach case. Other detectives from specialized commands, including computer crimes, also have been brought into the Gilgo Beach case. There are now 19 Suffolk detectives assigned full time to homicide investigations, with four supervisors. <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> County has 20 full-time homicide detectives and four supervisors. 
Robert Creighton, a former Suffolk police commissioner and now a <a href="/topics/Smithtown%2C_NY">Smithtown</a> councilman who is a frequent critic of the department, said overall fewer numbers of marked police cars and uniformed officers in recent years could give gang members more opportunities to target victims and escape arrest. 
<a href="/topics/Richard_Dormer">Dormer</a>, however, said that even with fewer overall police officers, more have been assigned to sector cars - 1,096 now compared with 970 in 2004. 
&nbsp; 
Anyone with information about an unsolved homicide should call the following numbers: 
IN <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">NASSAU</a>: <a href="/topics/Nassau_County%2C_NY">Nassau</a> County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS 
IN <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County%2C_NY">SUFFOLK</a>: Suffolk County Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS or the <a href="/topics/Suffolk_County_Police">Suffolk County Police</a> Homicide Department at 631-852-6392

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LIMURD20

Suffolk police clear fewer homicide cases

liBODY

The man accused of killing Rebecca Koster was so determined to hide the <a href="/topics/Copiague%2C_NY">Copiague</a> woman's identity that he mutilated and burned her body, and traveled by ferry to dispose of it in a <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> field, prosecutors said Tuesday. 
At the arraignment of Koster's accused killer, her family gasped as Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Janet <a href="/topics/Albertson%2C_NY">Albertson</a> detailed the condition of Koster's body when it was found Dec. 4 in North Stonington. The defendant, Evans Ganthier, 30, of Central Islip, did not speak during the Central Islip hearing and his attorney maintained his innocence. 
In an attempt to keep police from identifying her, the killer removed her fingers and toes, along with a large tattoo on her back, <a href="/topics/Albertson%2C_NY">Albertson</a> said. Koster's hair and portions of her ear and nose were also removed, the prosecutor said. 
Sharing a courtroom bench with Koster's brother and friends, her mother, Barbara Ross of <a href="/topics/Copiague%2C_NY">Copiague</a>, rocked back and forth and sobbed. Afterward, her stepfather, Larry Ross, 36, said he was stunned. "In our world, this is sick, inhumane," he said. 
Ganthier pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. He was held without bail. "My client maintains his innocence," said his attorney, George Duncan of <a href="/topics/Hauppauge%2C_NY">Hauppauge</a>. 
Police say Ganthier did not confess to the crime. But according to the criminal complaint, Ganthier told a detective "I had the knife in my hand; I made a mistake; I can't take it back." 
Officials said little about an alleged motive, except that Ganthier met Koster, 24, a home health aide, at a <a href="/topics/Holbrook%2C_NY">Holbrook</a> bar the night she went missing, and that Ganthier spoke to her "in an aggressive manner." 
Police say they left separately. Friends dropped her off at her <a href="/topics/Copiague%2C_NY">Copiague</a> home at 3:30 a.m. But, after two early morning phone calls to Koster that police say can be linked to Ganthier, the two met up again. 
She was discovered missing in the morning. Her family later received text messages from her cell phone, saying she was being held by her boyfriend and that he'd threatened to kill her. Police believe they were actually sent by Ganthier after her death. The boyfriend was not involved in her death, police say. "The 'why' is still unknown at this time," said Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky. She died from a stab wound to the stomach in an unspecified place in Suffolk County. 
Police and prosecutors said they have several pieces of evidence linking Ganthier to the crime. Surveillance video showed him getting on the Port Jefferson Ferry to <a href="/topics/Connecticut">Connecticut</a> in his mother's sport utility vehicle on the day Koster went missing, officials allege, and he later checked into a motel near where her body was found in North Stonington, wrapped in a blanket with a plastic bag over her head. His fingerprint was on tape holding the bag, officials said. 
Ganthier is a 2007 graduate of <a href="/topics/Dowling_College">Dowling College</a>, where he got a bachelor's degree in psychology. An online profile says he attended St. Anthony's High School in <a href="/topics/South_Huntington%2C_NY">South Huntington</a>, although that could not be confirmed Tuesday. Police said he was unemployed. A business named Secrets Adult Entertainment Services is listed in his name at his Miller Avenue address. A family member declined to comment. 
A woman answering at a second business listed in Ganthier's name, Happy Time Entertainment, in <a href="/topics/Centereach%2C_NY">Centereach</a>, said it was a defunct kids' party business. "I don't speak to him, I haven't spoken to him in a long time," said the woman, who declined to give her name. 
Koster's childhood friend, Joseph Farriella, 30, said neither he nor her friends knew Ganthier, who has two pending criminal cases on <a href="/topics/Long_Island%2C_NY">Long Island</a>. 
PHOTOS: <a href="http://www.newsday.com/long-island/photos-rebecca-koster-murder-case-1.1655280">Click here to see photos from the Rebecca Koster slay case</a>

LIMURD10

Prosecutor: Suspect mutilated victim to hide identity

Complete coverage: Evans Ganthier mutilation case

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