Court hears tape in armed car robbery case

A recording in which, prosecutors say, a Dix Hills multimillionaire discusses his role in an armed car robbery that turned fatal was played in federal court Tuesday.

Prosecutors, who hope to convict the defendant, Christian Tarantino, with what they say are his own words, played the beginning of the 40-minute tape in federal court in Central Islip. On the recording, the voice prosecutors allege is that of Tarantino, says that he just got a call from his lawyer.

The voice says his lawyer had told him that the "U.S. Attorney wants to take DNA from you. You . . . botched the armored car up," according to a transcript.

Tarantino, according to federal prosecutors, then goes on to talk about how he and others drove to the scene of the robbery in Muttontown in 1994, then ditched their original vehicle for another getaway car. A guard was killed during the crime.

"The car we drove up in, the car we pulled up. We changed tails over here, and we went to a different car and took off," Tarantino says on the tape, according to prosecutors.

Tarantino's lawyer at the time the tape was supposedly made in 2000, Mel Roth of Garden City, said Tuesday in a telephone interview, "I never said that. I deny ever saying that."

One of Tarantino's current lawyers, Michael Rosen, is questioning the authenticity of the recording and fighting to keep it from being used at trial.

The tape which will continue to be played Wednesday, was allegedly made by Vincent Gargiulo, a business associate of Tarantino's. According to prosecutors, Gargiulo was involved in a scheme to either get money from the FBI for informing on Tarantino or from Tarantino to keep the tape from authorities.

Tarantino is accused of three murders: that of the armored car guard, Julius Baumgardt, and two other people, Louis Dorval and Gargiulo, both of whom he allegedly suspected of informing on him to the FBI.

The tape was introduced into evidence by FBI agent Robert Schelhorn, who was questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney James Miskiewicz.

Before that testimony, Schelhorn said hair found in the getaway car, several hundred yards from the crime scene, was found statistically likely to be that of the mitochondrial DNA of Tarantino and Dorval.

Dorval also allegedly took part in the robbery, according to prosecutors.While mitochondrial DNA is not as accurate a determinate as regular cellular DNA, Schelhorn said under questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney James Miskiewicz, that only one in a thousand people have DNA similar to Dorval's and one in 1600 like Tarantino's.