Long Island

Crime

de felice murder - complete

A Massapequa man was convicted Wednesday of shooting a North Amityville woman to death after she refused to withdraw an identity theft charge against his girlfriend. 
David Newbeck, 36, was impassive as he heard the jury foreman pronounce him guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree hindering prosecution, for killing and then hiding the body of Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, on Aug. 23, 2010. Meanwhile, Jenkins' sister, Crystal Buturla, nodded in satisfaction. 
Last fall, Jenkins' boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice, was convicted of his role in the murder. Suffolk prosecutors said DeFelice let Newbeck into the warehouse apartment he and Jenkins shared. While DeFelice took his Rottweiler for a walk, Newbeck shot Jenkins four times in the head and once in the chest. Newbeck then dumped the body in Lindenhurst while DeFelice cleaned the blood-spattered bedroom. 
"This is our ultimate goal -- to get them convicted, to have justice," Buturla said afterward. "Mandy would always get the last word, and she got the last word today. She would never back down." 
Jenkins' sister-in-law, Marie Castiglione, said the family was thankful to the jurors, who took five hours to reach a verdict. Jurors declined to comment. 
Newbeck was found not guilty of criminal possession of a firearm. The .45-caliber handgun used to kill Jenkins was never found. 
Defense attorney William Keahon said the acquittal on the gun charge could undermine the murder conviction because it is "inherently self-contradictory." He predicted an appeals court is "going to mandate a new trial." 
The trial lasted more than a month and included 52 witnesses, more than 300 exhibits, a 10-day interruption after Keahon fainted during his closing argument and what Keahon called "a parade of characters" -- witnesses with criminal records -- who testified about how Newbeck bragged about the killing to them. 
But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla told jurors in his summation, "They're not my characters. They're his characters," pointing at Newbeck. 
Biancavilla showed how surveillance video and cellphone location data showed Newbeck moving to the crime scene and where he dumped the body, but he said his best evidence was recorded jailhouse phone calls of Newbeck discussing the crime with his mother. 
"David Newbeck is my star witness," Biancavilla told jurors. "You could not ask for anything better than this." 
There was only one possible verdict jurors could reach, Biancavilla said afterward. "They followed the evidence to its logical conclusion," he said. 
Newbeck faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison. Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. will impose sentence on June 23 -- what would have been Jenkins' 34th birthday. 
"How cool is that?" Biancavilla said when Buturla told him.

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David Newbeck convicted in 2010 Mandy Jo Jenkins murder in North Amityville

LIer guilty in 2010 murder of man's girlfriend

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The places a Massapequa man went and the people he called the day a North Amityville woman was shot to death all show his involvement in the crime, as do the many steps he took to elude arrest afterward, a Suffolk prosecutor told jurors Tuesday.
The jury in the courtroom of Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. heard that closing argument before they began deliberations Tuesday in the second-degree murder case against David Newbeck, 36. He's accused of killing Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, in her apartment because she wouldn't withdraw identity theft charges against his girlfriend. Her boyfriend and Newbeck's childhood friend, Joseph DeFelice, was convicted of his role in the murder last fall.
"She was expendable to them," Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said. "She was a nuisance. An inconvenience that had to be eliminated."
In his summation, defense attorney William Keahon had noted the absence of forensic evidence against his client. But Biancavilla said surveillance videos and cellphone location data put Newbeck at the warehouse apartment Jenkins and DeFelice shared in the early hours of Aug. 23, 2010, and indicate he was in the Lindenhurst neighborhood where the body was found more than six weeks later wrapped in a tarp.
Before and after Jenkins' shooting, Biancavilla said Newbeck was on the phone with his girlfriend, Jennifer Russini. But while he was dumping the body, he said Newbeck instead was talking to DeFelice, who had stayed behind to clean the apartment.
When the body was found, it was so decomposed that it took a forensic anthropologist to reconstruct her head and figure out she was shot four times. Showing jurors a photo of Jenkins' shattered skull, Biancavilla said, "He blew the side of her head off."
Biancavilla and Keahon then had a brief but heated argument when Keahon said Biancavilla wrongly claimed Newbeck bought a new tarp to wrap the body.
"Sit down, Mr. Keahon," Biancavilla said when the defense attorney stood to object.
"You want to make me sit down?" Keahon replied, before Toomey told Biancavilla to talk to the jury and not to Keahon.
Biancavilla listed numerous steps Newbeck took after dumping the body that illustrated Newbeck's consciousness of guilt. They included fleeing police the day of the killing, using a variety of cellphones and rental cars in subsequent weeks, leaving Long Island to go to Alabama after attempting to move the body, leaving Alabama in the middle of the night after hearing there was an arrest warrant for him, and trying to go to Ecuador. Newbeck was arrested as he tried to board the plane.
"There is only one reasonable conclusion you can draw from all of these things, and that is that he's guilty," Biancavilla said.
Deliberations resume Wednesday.

Suffolk

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Prosecutor sums up in Newbeck murder trial

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Ten days after fainting while giving a closing argument in a murder trial, a defense attorney finished his five-hour summation Monday by saying that Suffolk police and prosecutors not only arrested the wrong person for the killing of a North Amityville woman, but also got the day of the crime wrong.
After apologizing to jurors for causing the delay, William Keahon told them that there was plenty of doubt surrounding the second-degree murder charge against his client, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa. He is accused of shooting Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, to death on Aug. 23, 2010.
Keahon said that if jurors studied phone records in evidence, they could conclude that Newbeck's co-defendant and Jenkins' boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice, shot her with the help of two different men. But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla, who began his closing argument Monday, ridiculed that theory.
Biancavilla said both Newbeck and DeFelice, who was convicted of second-degree murder last fall, wanted Jenkins dead because she had become a liability to them, in part because she had filed identity theft charges against Newbeck's girlfriend. For that reason, he said DeFelice let Newbeck into the apartment he shared with Jenkins so Newbeck could kill her, wrap her in a tarp and dump the body in Lindenhurst.
Keahon said that story is not much different from "the lies and fabrications" that DeFelice told police hours after crime.
Instead, he said DeFelice, who witnesses said often beat Jenkins, likely hatched a plan to kill her the day before, Aug. 22, 2010, with Anthony Cassino, a drug dealer, when they were in Atlantic City with Newbeck. They did it that evening with Anthony Pilo, another friend who rented a music studio next to the warehouse, Keahon said.
Keahon dismissed the testimony of a "parade of characters" against Newbeck, dismissing them as liars who beat up women and will now say anything to save themselves jail time. Biancavilla said he didn't choose them as witnesses.
"They're not my characters. They're his characters," he said, pointing at Newbeck.
He played a tape of a call Newbeck made to his mother after he was arrested trying to board a plane to Ecuador. In the call, Ivy Newbeck told her son she heard the tarp containing Jenkins' body came from her husband's business, Newbeck Machinery. "That's funny," Newbeck replied on the tape. "No, it was a brand new tarp. It was brown and green. It had nothing to do with work."
Biancavilla urged jurors to think about that call. 
"That's a mother and her son talking about evidence that could connect her son to a murder," he said. "David Newbeck is my star witness. He is my star. You could not ask for anything better than this."
The fact Newbeck brought a tarp to the killing shows the level of planning involved, Biancavilla said. Newbeck faces 25 years to life if convicted.
Deliberations are expected to begin Tuesday.

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Lawyer, recovered from fainting spell, gives summation in Riverhead murder case

Four days after a defense attorney fainted during his closing argument in a murder trial, it is unclear when the trial will resume. 
After William Keahon collapsed Friday afternoon, Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. told jurors hearing the second-degree murder case against David Newbeck to return to court Monday. But Keahon, 69, was kept at the Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead until Sunday and then was readmitted to the hospital on Monday. 
The soonest the case will resume is Thursday, but it may not go on until next week. 
Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, is accused of shooting Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, four times in the head at the North Amityville warehouse where she lived with her boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice. Prosecutors say DeFelice set her up to be killed by Newbeck, who they say wanted her dead because she wouldn't withdraw an identity theft charge against his girlfriend. 
DeFelice was convicted last fall. 
Keahon had spoken for about 21/2 hours Friday in the Riverhead courtroom when he passed out. 
Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said Tuesday he's ready to resume the case as soon as Toomey gives the word. 
"I've been prepared to give my closing argument since Friday," he said. "This just gives me more time to refine my argument."

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David Newbeck murder trial delayed by defense attorney's illness

A defense attorney collapsed yesterday as he was explaining to jurors that no forensic evidence links his client to a North Amityville woman he's accused of killing. 
More than 2 1/2 hours into his closing argument, defense attorney William Keahon's knees buckled and he fell into the prosecution table, bringing the trial to an abrupt halt. 
Keahon represents David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa. He's charged with second-degree murder in the death of Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, who was shot to death on Aug. 23, 2010. Prosecutors say Newbeck killed her because she refused to withdraw identity theft charges against his girlfriend. 
"Mr. Keahon did pass out," Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. told jurors after they returned to the courtroom. "His blood pressure was a little high, but I believe he'll be all right. He's just exhausted." 
Keahon, 69, was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead. Toomey said closing arguments will resume Monday morning. 
Before he collapsed, Keahon ridiculed the lack of forensic evidence and claimed motive for the crime. 
Pointing to prosecutors, he said, "This table would have you believe that David Newbeck shot Miss Jenkins in the head four times and once in the chest because a girlfriend was facing a charge of a $485 theft." 
Keahon said the prosecution has relied on a "parade of characters" burdened with their own criminal histories. A key witness, Brian Mulhauser, told jurors last week about Newbeck's plans to move Jenkins' body, which he had dumped in Lindenhurst. 
"Mulhauser is so untrustworthy that both a GPS and an alcohol sensor were strapped to his ankle," Keahon said. "This is their star witness." 
Keahon said it made no sense that none of Jenkins' blood or hair was found in Newbeck's Chevrolet Trailblazer, which police seized the same day they say he shot her, wrapped her in tarps and took her body from where she lived in a warehouse to Lindenhurst. 
Jenkins' boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice, told police Newbeck did it. Although DeFelice was convicted last fall for his role in the murder, setting Jenkins up to be killed, Keahon said, "Everyone was buying the baloney Joe DeFelice was selling." 
Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla will give his closing argument Monday. In his opening statement a month ago, he told jurors Newbeck bragged about killing Jenkins to several people. Surveillance video and cellphone data also tracked his movements that day and when the body was to be moved, he said.

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Attorney in Suffolk murder trial collapses during closing argument

An acquaintance of the man whose girlfriend was shot to death next door in the same North Amityville building acknowledged Wednesday that he got a flurry of phone calls and texts from the man at about the time of the slaying. 
But Anthony Pilo, 37, of West Babylon, testifying in Suffolk County Court, said he couldn't recall the subject of any of the messages more than three years later. 
Pilo had a recording studio next door in the same building where Joseph DeFelice lived with his girlfriend, Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30. Jenkins was killed there in the early hours of Aug. 23, 2010. 
DeFelice has been convicted for his role in the slaying -- setting Jenkins up to be killed -- and now David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa is on trial, charged with second-degree murder. Newbeck is a friend of DeFelice and an acquaintance of Pilo. 
Prosecutors say Newbeck wanted Jenkins dead because she had refused to withdraw identity theft charges against his girlfriend, but this week Newbeck's attorney has seized on DeFelice's phone calls and texts to suggest that DeFelice committed the crime with Pilo's help instead. Pilo has not been charged in the case. 
During Pilo's testimony before Judge John Toomey Jr., neither Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla nor defense attorney William Keahon asked him if he had anything to do with the crime. Instead, they limited themselves to why DeFelice called and texted so often in the hours before and after Jenkins was shot. 
Pilo said he was too preoccupied moving equipment from one studio in the building to another to pay much attention to DeFelice. 
"I don't recall speaking with him," he testified. "I didn't discuss anything with him on the phone." 
Pilo said the only thing he heard during the night was a drummer practicing in another studio, which he said was not unusual before dawn. 
The last of the prosecution's 50 witnesses was an expert in the tracking of cellphones, Det. John Primiano of the Suffolk district attorney's office. 
He used phone records and location data to track where Newbeck's and DeFelice's phones were located the day of the shooting and where Newbeck's phone was on Oct. 3, 2010, when Jenkins' body was discovered at the end of a dead-end street in Lindenhurst. Police say Newbeck was preparing to move the body then. 
Primiano said both men's phones were near the warehouse before 3 a.m., and then both near Newbeck's home in Massapequa. Both phones returned to the warehouse about 5:30 a.m., when police believe Jenkins was killed, and then Primiano said by 6:14 a.m. Newbeck's phone is near the spot in Lindenhurst where Jenkins' body was recovered weeks later. 
Closing arguments will be Friday.

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LI man who received texts on night of slaying testifies at murder trial

In the hours before and after a North Amityville man's girlfriend was shot to death, he phoned or texted a man who was next door as the crime happened, a Suffolk homicide detective testified Tuesday. 
Det. Thomas Walsh was cross-examined much of the day by the attorney for David Newbeck, 36, the Massapequa man on trial on charges of second-degree murder in the death of Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30. 
Defense attorney William Keahon of Hauppauge focused on calls and texts made by Jenkins' boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice, who was convicted of his role in the slaying last fall. 
Prosecutors say DeFelice set up Jenkins to be killed on Aug. 23, 2010, by Newbeck, his childhood friend, after Jenkins refused to withdraw an identity theft charge against Newbeck's girlfriend. They say Newbeck came to the Halloween products warehouse where Jenkins lived with DeFelice, shot her and dumped her body in Lindenhurst. 
But Keahon suggested during his questioning of Walsh in Suffolk County Court that two other men could have been the ones who helped DeFelice kill Jenkins instead of his client. 
Walsh said DeFelice used his cellphone 31 times both before and after Jenkins was shot. Most of those calls and texts went to Anthony Pilo, 37, a West Babylon man who rented a recording studio next door to the warehouse, in the same building. Pilo was at the studio that night and is visible on surveillance video. Pilo is expected to testify Wednesday. 
Walsh testified that he never met Pilo until Monday night, when he and Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla went to his home to talk to him after the trial was done that day. 
The day of the killing, DeFelice also contacted Anthony Cassino, who testified earlier in the trial about spending the days before the slaying with Newbeck and DeFelice in Atlantic City. 
Cassino, who dropped DeFelice at the warehouse the night of the killing and returned early in the morning, said he saw DeFelice's dog licking a bloodstain and urged DeFelice to call police. 
Walsh said DNA on a cigarette recovered from an ashtray in the room where Jenkins was killed matched Cassino. 
Eventually DeFelice called police, telling them Newbeck did it, although he told varying stories about his own involvement in the crime. 
Both DeFelice and Newbeck were arrested out of state after Jenkins' body was discovered in October 2010. DeFelice was in Florida. Newbeck was captured in Houston as he was about to board a plane to Ecuador.

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Defense in Newbeck murder trial raises possibility of new accomplice

About six weeks after police learned a North Amityville woman had been shot to death, a Suffolk homicide detective got a call from a friend of the suspect saying they were about to move the body, the detective testified Monday in Suffolk County Court.
Ever since Aug. 23, 2010, detectives had been looking both for the body of Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, and for the man they believed had shot her four times in the head, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa. On Oct. 3, Det. Thomas Walsh said, an informant, Brian Mulhauser, called and said he was with Newbeck "and they were going to be moving Mandy Jenkins' body."
Walsh testified at Newbeck's trial before Judge John Toomey Jr. Newbeck is charged with second-degree murder and faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted. Prosecutors say he killed Jenkins because she refused to withdraw identity theft charges against his girlfriend, Jennifer Russini.
During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla in Riverhead, Walsh said he alerted his supervisors, who organized surveillance in Lindenhurst. Newbeck realized he was being followed and fled, but not before Mulhauser let Walsh know where to look for the body, he said.
In a light drizzle, Walsh said, he walked into weeds at the end of Frank Street in Lindenhurst, between a "dead end" sign and a cemetery fence. "I observed a clump, like someone had dumped something," he said. 
Under weeds and debris, he said he found a brown and green tarp closed with duct tape. Later at the medical examiner's office, it was opened to reveal Jenkins' remains. But by then, Newbeck was gone. Earlier in the trial, witnesses testified that Newbeck fled first to Birmingham, Ala., where he spent a week with his cousin, Jeremy Wood. Then, Wood testified, he rented a car for Newbeck and bought him a plane ticket from Houston to Quito, Ecuador.
Walsh said the Department of Homeland Security alerted him about the ticket. Newbeck was arrested as he boarded the plane.
Biancavilla played for jurors a profanity-laced recording of a collect phone call Newbeck placed to his mother from the Harris County, Texas, jail, in which he describes trying to avoid arrest. He told his mother he realized police were looking for him and tried to leave the airport, but he'd already gone through security, so he tried to get on the plane.
"The second I handed them my passport to get on the plane, the ------ behind the counter began screaming, 'It's him! It's him!' " Newbeck told his mother, Ivy Newbeck.
In another call recorded by the jail, Ivy Newbeck told her son she heard rumors police "have the gun with your fingerprints on it." Newbeck laughed and replied, "OK, well, that doesn't exist." Police never found a murder weapon.

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Detective: Body found in Lindenhurst brush after tip

A North Amityville woman made two logical decisions that led to her getting fatally shot four times in the head and once in the chest while she slept, a Suffolk prosecutor told a jury Tuesday. 
 The first decision by Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, was to file identity theft charges against a woman who used her name to defraud a bank, Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said. The second was to trust her live-in boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice, 34, he said. 
 DeFelice and his onetime friend, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, are charged with second-degree murder. Biancavilla said Newbeck killed Jenkins when she refused to withdraw identity theft charges against his girlfriend, Jennifer Russini, 30. DeFelice helped Newbeck do it, Biancavilla said. 
 "She relied on Mr. DeFelice to protect her," Biancavilla said during his opening statement at DeFelice's trial before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. "She trusted him to protect her. But he and Mr. Newbeck executed her while she slept on the couch in his apartment. Mr. DeFelice set up Mandy Jo to be executed." 
 Newbeck will be tried later. 
 DeFelice's attorney, Richard Stafford of Bohemia, said Newbeck killed Jenkins on his own. 
 "Joe's actions are that of a witness," Stafford said. "Joe didn't want Mandy Jo to die." 
 Biancavilla said the evidence will show otherwise. 
 He said that at 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2010, when Newbeck showed up at the Halloween products warehouse where DeFelice and Jenkins lived and worked, DeFelice gave Newbeck a key and took his Rottweiler outside. While DeFelice waited, Biancavilla said Newbeck shot her with a .45-caliber handgun, wrapped her body in a tarp and left. 
 "But for his assistance of Mr. Newbeck, Mandy Jo Jenkins would be here today," Biancavilla said. "Mr. DeFelice is as guilty of the murder of Miss Jenkins as the person who pulled the trigger." 
 At 7:07 a.m., DeFelice called 911 and told the first of four versions of what had happened, Biancavilla said. 
 Jurors in Riverhead listened to a recording of the lengthy call, in which the operator asked incredulously why he took so long to call. 
 "I heard three gunshots," DeFelice said later on the call. "I started crying and lost my mind." 
 Shortly after that call, Biancavilla said DeFelice told officers an unknown masked man held him at gunpoint while Newbeck shot Jenkins. Then Biancavilla said DeFelice told detectives a version similar to his 911 call and finally described helping Newbeck get the gun and leading him to Jenkins. 
 Police found Jenkins' body on a dead end street in Lindenhurst after seeing Newbeck go there in October 2010 with work gloves and a shovel. 
 Newbeck fled and was arrested weeks later in Texas about to board a flight to Ecuador.

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Prosecutor: Slay victim betrayed by boyfriend

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The North Amityville man who called police to say his girlfriend was shot and taken away from the Halloween products warehouse where they lived was fidgety, excitable and had a shifting story, police officers testified Wednesday in Suffolk County Court.
Joseph DeFelice, 34, told officers that masked men came to the Halloween Scene warehouse in North Amityville at about 4:30 a.m. on Monday, Aug. 23, 2010. He said one of them was his friend David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, and that he went inside while the other man kept him outside at gunpoint, Suffolk Officer Jason Petzold said during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Ray Varuolo.
Petzold and two other officers said DeFelice identified the couch where Newbeck shot Mandy Jo Jenkins. The officers weren't asked how DeFelice knew where Jenkins was shot if he was outside at the time. DeFelice and Newbeck were later charged with second-degree murder after authorities said they acted together to kill Jenkins. Newbeck will be tried later. 
Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said in his opening statement that Newbeck wanted Jenkins dead because she filed identity-theft charges against his girlfriend, Jennifer Russini, and that DeFelice helped him.
Petzold testified that while he examined the couch, DeFelice kept talking. 
"He kept going back and forth with the story and changing it around," Petzold said. In some versions, the second masked man was holding him at gunpoint and in others, Newbeck just ordered him outside.
Petzold said he noticed bloodstains on the couch, which was missing some cushions, and saw a clump of still-wet blood low on the frame. Jurors saw pictures of the bloodstains in the crowded, makeshift bedroom, which featured a skull decal on the wall behind the television.
Petzold said he asked DeFelice why he waited more than two hours to call 911 after the shooting. "He said he didn't have a cellphone, but we knew he had one because he had it when we pulled up," Petzold said.
Petzold said when he asked DeFelice for identification, he emptied his pockets of various papers, including two parking tickets from the Jersey Shore. DeFelice said he was partying there during the weekend with Newbeck and Russini.
Biancavilla told jurors that one way DeFelice helped Newbeck was by taking his Rottweiler out of the apartment before letting Newbeck in. But during cross-examination by defense attorney Richard Stafford of Bohemia, Petzold and the other officers said they didn't see or hear a dog at the warehouse.
Stafford also asked Petzold if DeFelice was upset about the shooting, in addition to being nervous. "Upset?" Petzold said. "That's the one thing I didn't see in him."

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Testimony: Murder suspect was fidgety, changed story

A little more than a month after a man shot a North Amityville woman to death in a Halloween products warehouse and drove off with her body, police found her decomposed remains next to a Dead End sign and a cemetery in North Lindenhurst, a detective testified Thursday. 
 The remains of Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, were wrapped in two tarps and dumped in the brush at the end of Frank Street, Suffolk police Det. John Kellman testified during the trial of Jenkins' boyfriend, Joseph DeFelice, 34. He is charged with second-degree murder and is accused of helping his friend, David Newbeck, 36, kill her in August 2010. Newbeck, of Massapequa, will be tried later. 
 Prosecutors say DeFelice let Newbeck into the apartment he shared with Jenkins in the warehouse and that Newbeck shot her four times in the head and once in the chest. DeFelice's attorney, Richard Stafford of Bohemia, has said Newbeck acted alone. 
 Testifying before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. in Riverhead, Kellman said that when the tarps were unwrapped at the morgue, "the victim inside was in an advanced state of decomposition." 
 Jurors saw pictures of Jenkins' body as it was found, with duct tape around her ankles and a sweatshirt taped over her head. DeFelice turned his head from the screen displaying the photos. 
 Kellman said a bullet was found in Jenkins' skull and another in her left hand, during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. Although the body was in fragile condition, he said enough remained to identify her. 
 A tattoo of a flower was still visible on her chest, and Kellman said the middle finger of her left hand still had a fingerprint, which he said he matched to fingerprints on file. 
 Earlier, Kellman narrated a video of the Halloween warehouse apartment where Jenkins was shot. In the cramped room that she and DeFelice shared, a grim reaper mannequin faced a couch with blood spatter on it. 
 Kellman said he had to wait to photograph an adjacent room until a Rottweiler was taken out of it. Biancavilla told jurors in his opening statement that DeFelice took the dog outside when Newbeck arrived to kill Jenkins.

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Jury shown photos of murder victim's decomposed body

For hours, a jittery and emotional North Amityville man had been telling police that a masked man had held him at gunpoint as a friend shot his girlfriend and took her body away, a Suffolk detective testified Friday -- until the story changed sharply. 
 Joseph DeFelice, 34, said his friend David Newbeck, 36, showed up about 4:30 a.m. on Aug. 23, 2010, at the Halloween products warehouse where he lived with Mandy Jo Jenkins, shot her and left, Det. Guido Cirenza testified. Cirenza said he asked for more detail on the other man, whom DeFelice had sometimes described as wearing a bandanna and other times wearing a ski mask. 
 "At that point, he said there was no second suspect in the vehicle; that David acted alone," Cirenza said. And then DeFelice added that he'd buried a shell casing behind the warehouse. 
 DeFelice is on trial before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. in Riverhead, charged with second-degree murder. Prosecutors say he helped Newbeck, his childhood friend, kill Jenkins. 
 Cirenza said DeFelice went on to say that instead of being held outside, Newbeck called him back in after shooting Jenkins. DeFelice found Jenkins alive and spitting up blood, according to Cirenza. 
 "He said he grabbed on to her shoulders and apologized to her," Cirenza said during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. "Then he left and walked down the street." 
 DeFelice said Newbeck became enraged earlier that night when he saw Jenkins at the warehouse, Cirenza said. Jenkins had filed charges against Newbeck's girlfriend, Jennifer Russini, for identity theft. 
 After that initial encounter, DeFelice said he accompanied Newbeck to his home in Massapequa and watched him get a gun out of his dresser and a couple of tarps, Cirenza testified. On the way back to the warehouse, Cirenza said DeFelice told him Newbeck was still angry, "saying over and over he was going to kill Mandy." 
 At the warehouse, DeFelice said he took his Rottweiler dog outside, let Newbeck in and heard the shots, Cirenza said. 
 During cross-examination by defense attorney Richard Stafford of Bohemia, Cirenza said Newbeck didn't tell his client what he was doing when he packed the gun and the tarps.

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Cop: Joseph DeFelice's account of killing changed

Before Joseph DeFelice reported his girlfriend's killing to police in the summer of 2010, he phoned an acquaintance and said a friend, David Newbeck, had shot her, the acquaintance testified Monday at DeFelice's murder trial in Riverhead. 
 "Dave killed his girlfriend," said Anthony Cassino, 39, recalling what DeFelice told him on the morning of Aug. 23, 2010. 
 However, DeFelice told police later that day that a masked man had held him at gunpoint as Newbeck shot his girlfriend, Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, and took her body. In all, DeFelice changed his story four times, prosecutor Robert Biancavilla said. 
 DeFelice, 34, of North Amityville, is on trial for second-degree murder. He is accused of giving Newbeck a warehouse key and taking his Rottweiler outside while Newbeck shot Jenkins with a .45-caliber handgun. 
 DeFelice's attorney, Richard Stafford of Bohemia, has said Newbeck acted alone. Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, is to be tried separately later. 
 According to Cassino, who is serving time for selling prescription drugs, DeFelice told him Newbeck came by the Halloween Scene warehouse in North Amityville, where DeFelice lived and worked with Jenkins. 
 Newbeck went inside and argued with Jenkins, who hid behind a television set because she was afraid of him, Cassino told a jury before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. 
 DeFelice and Newbeck drove to Newbeck's Massapequa house to retrieve a gun and returned, Cassino testified. DeFelice told Cassino said he heard three shots. Cassino didn't believe DeFelice's story until he went inside and saw blood under a couch cushion, where police said Jenkins was sleeping when she was shot. "He said he helped wrap her up and put her into the truck," Cassino said. 
 Police found Jenkins' body, wrapped in tarp, on a dead end street in Lindenhurst after seeing Newbeck there in October 2010 with gloves and a shovel. 
 On cross-examination, Cassino acknowledged that when he was questioned by police in August 2010, he did not say DeFelice helped Newbeck. 
 Two other prosecution witnesses, Robert Joyce of Levittown and Eric Embro, testified. Joyce said he heard Newbeck, his childhood friend, and DeFelice talk about killing Jenkins twice because she refused to withdraw identity theft charges against Newbeck's girlfriend. Embro, who sold DeFelice coffee from a truck, said he saw DeFelice and a second man with a tarp the morning Jenkins was killed.

LIDEFE01

Prosecutor: Joseph DeFelice changed story in murder case four times

A North Amityville man told police he loved his girlfriend, but when his childhood friend and drug-dealing partner insisted she had to die, he agreed to help, a Suffolk detective testified Wednesday. 
 Homicide Det. Thomas Walsh recounted the last of several versions Joseph DeFelice, 34, gave of how Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, came to be shot to death on Aug. 23, 2010, in the Halloween products warehouse where they lived. 
 DeFelice is on trial before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr., charged with second-degree murder. 
 His friend, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, will be tried later. 
 "He said he didn't really want to stop Dave," Walsh said during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. "He said he felt he owed Dave, and that he had known him forever." 
 Problems between Newbeck and Jenkins started the previous June when Jenkins filed identity theft charges against Newbeck's girlfriend, Jennifer Russini, Walsh said DeFelice told him. 
 Russini had taken $28,000 from Newbeck, too, and now she needed to scam other people so he could get repaid, DeFelice explained, according to Walsh. 
 But that couldn't happen if Jenkins had Russini arrested, so Newbeck began insisting that Jenkins had to die, Walsh said DeFelice told him. According to Walsh, about two weeks before the shooting, DeFelice said Newbeck told him, "You better take care of her, or I will." 
 DeFelice said he later lied, telling Newbeck he'd strangled Jenkins and dumped her in a ditch, the detective said. But early on Aug. 23, after making some pill deliveries and buying crystal meth for themselves, Newbeck spotted Jenkins while picking up a go-kart he'd left at the warehouse, DeFelice said, according to Walsh. 
 DeFelice helped Newbeck bring the go-kart to his house, and watched Newbeck get his .45-caliber pistol and some tarps, he said, according to Walsh. At the warehouse, DeFelice got his Rottweiler out of the apartment, gave Newbeck the key, walked his dog down the street and heard a shot, he said, according to Walsh. 
 When he got back, Jenkins was barely breathing. "He said he hugged her, told her he loved her and walked out of the apartment" again, Walsh said. 
 Newbeck shot her again, DeFelice said, according to Walsh. An autopsy showed she was shot four times in the head and once in the chest.After he helped Newbeck clean up the mess in his apartment, Newbeck wrapped Jenkins' body in the tarps and took her away, DeFelice said, according to Walsh.

LIDEFE03

Joseph DeFelice said he agreed to help killer, cop testifies

A North Amityville man seemed delighted on a video shown Thursday to jurors to see the Suffolk detective who had him arrested and charged with murder in the death of his girlfriend.
Det. Thomas Walsh testified that the video showed Joseph DeFelice, 34, being processed at police headquarters in Yaphank after he'd been brought back from Florida, where he was arrested in October 2010.
DeFelice is on trial before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr., charged with helping a friend kill his girlfriend, Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30.
"Hey, Tommy!" a smiling DeFelice said in the video when Walsh arrived at headquarters.
Because DeFelice now had an attorney, Walsh immediately held up his hands and told him, "We can't talk about the case."
"I know," DeFelice said, holding out his hand for Walsh to shake. "No hard feelings."
Weeks earlier, DeFelice had explained in detail his actions on Aug. 23, 2010, when Jenkins was killed, according to Walsh's testimony.
During questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla, Walsh said DeFelice explained how he let his friend, David Newbeck, into his warehouse apartment to kill Jenkins.
Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, wanted Jenkins dead because she had filed identity theft charges against his girlfriend, DeFelice said, according to Walsh.
Newbeck wanted his girlfriend to be able to continue ripping people off so she could pay back a debt to him, Walsh said DeFelice told him.
Although DeFelice said he loved Jenkins, he said he felt he owed Newbeck, Walsh testified. Newbeck will be tried later.
In the police video, DeFelice later called an aunt in Florida and assured her the Suffolk detectives were looking out for him.
"They know I didn't do it either," he told his aunt. "They're good people. When it's all over, I'm coming home . . . Tell everyone I love them and I'll see them soon."
If convicted, DeFelice faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.

LIDEFE04

Detective: Murder suspect greeted him with smile

A Suffolk homicide detective denied a defense attorney's suggestion Monday that he assumed from the start that a North Amityville man was guilty of helping to kill his girlfriend.
During cross-examination of Det. Thomas Walsh, defense attorney Richard Stafford of Bohemia asked about his interrogation training, which teaches that suspects should be questioned as if they are guilty and steered toward making admissions. 
Walsh was the final witness at the second-degree murder trial of Stafford's client, Joseph DeFelice, 34. He is charged with helping another man, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, kill his girlfriend, Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, in August 2010. Prosecutors say Newbeck wanted Jenkins dead because she refused to withdraw an identity theft complaint against his girlfriend.
Newbeck will be tried later.
During questioning by Stafford before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr., Walsh said he was just trying to figure out what happened when he talked to DeFelice, who reported the shooting to police.
"I was interviewing him because he said his girlfriend was murdered and taken away by his friend," Walsh said. "I didn't assume he was guilty when we were talking to him. We didn't know what we had. I didn't even know if we had a crime."
Jenkins' body wasn't found for more than a month.
Prosecutors say DeFelice helped Newbeck by giving him a key to the warehouse where he and Jenkins lived and taking his Rottweiller out so it wouldn't attack Newbeck, knowing that Newbeck was about to kill Jenkins.
Stafford noted that after DeFelice signed a 12-page statement, Walsh gave him and the dog a ride to a nearby motel.
"The dog was nice, wasn't it?" Stafford asked.
"I don't know how nice a dog it was," Walsh replied. "He was in control of his dog."
Outside the jury's presence afterward, Stafford asked Toomey to dismiss the case.
"There's no evidence whatsoever that my client intended for Mandy Jo Jenkins to die," he said. "He didn't want Dave to kill Mandy."
Toomey reserved decision. Jurors will hear closing arguments Tuesday.

LIDEFE08

Homicide detective: I didn't assume defendant's guilt during questioning

defelice cropped

An attorney for a North Amityville man said Tuesday his client's failure to immediately notify police of his girlfriend's August 2010 killing makes him a coward, not a murderer.
Defense attorney Richard Stafford, of Bohemia, told jurors that Joseph DeFelice, 34, should not have waited more than two hours to call 911 to notify authorities that Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, had been fatally shot.
"Being a coward is not a crime," Stafford said in his closing argument before Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. in Riverhead.
DeFelice is charged with second-degree murder, second-degree criminal facilitation and hindering prosecution. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.
Prosecutors say DeFelice helped a friend and business associate, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, kill Jenkins because she had refused to withdraw an identity theft complaint against Newbeck's girlfriend. Jenkins was killed on Aug. 23, 2010 -- shot four times in the head and once in the chest.
Assistant District Attorney Bob Biancavilla told the jury that DeFelice knew Newbeck was planning to kill Jenkins in the warehouse where she and De- Felice lived and worked -- and DeFelice helped Newbeck do it.
Biancavilla said DeFelice accompanied Newbeck when Newbeck drove to his house to fetch a .45-caliber pistol.
On their drive back to the warehouse, DeFelice saw Newbeck load bullets into the weapon, Biancavilla said. The prosecutor said DeFelice also left the key to the warehouse in the console of Newbeck's car, which Newbeck used to enter the building.
And DeFelice took his Rottweiler out of the warehouse so the dog would not attack Newbeck when he went inside and "executed" Jenkins, Biancavilla said.
"They did this crime together," he said. "They share the blame and the consequences for her murder."
Stafford argued that DeFelice left the key in Newbeck's car by accident. Newbeck has also been charged in the murder, and faces a separate trial.
The jury of six men and six women in the DeFelice case is to begin deliberating Wednesday.

LIDEFE09

Defense: Client a coward, not a murderer

A North Amityville man was convicted Thursday of murder for setting up his girlfriend so she could be shot to death by his friend in the Halloween products warehouse where the couple lived and worked. 
 A Suffolk County Court jury found Joseph DeFelice, 34, guilty of second-degree murder, second-degree criminal facilitation and first-degree hindering prosecution. He faces up to life in prison when Judge John Toomey Jr. sentences him on Nov. 13. 
 Relatives of the victim, Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, gasped in relief as they heard the verdict. Jenkins' sister-in-law, Marie Castiglione, flashed jurors a thumbs-up sign. 
 Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla said DeFelice's friend, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa, shot Jenkins four times in the head and once in the chest as she slept on Aug. 23, 2010, after DeFelice provided a key to the warehouse apartment and took his Rottweiler outside. Newbeck will be tried next year. 
 "One down, one to go," said Jenkins' sister, Crystal Buturla. 
 In a statement to police, DeFelice said Newbeck wanted Jenkins dead because she refused to withdraw an identity theft charge against Newbeck's girlfriend, Jennifer Russini. 
 DeFelice's attorney, Richard Stafford of Bohemia, said after the verdict, "From the beginning, he said he didn't have anything to do with it." 
 But Suffolk homicide Det. Thomas Walsh testified that DeFelice told him he had reasons for going along with Newbeck. 
 "He said he didn't really want to stop Dave," Walsh testified during questioning by Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla. "He said he felt he owed Dave, and that he had known him forever." 
 Problems between Newbeck and Jenkins started the previous June when Jenkins filed identity theft charges against Newbeck's girlfriend, Walsh said DeFelice told him. 
 Russini had taken $28,000 from Newbeck, too, and now she needed to scam other people so he could get repaid, DeFelice explained, according to Walsh. 
 DeFelice eventually told police what happened -- including how he hid evidence -- after giving several different versions of events. Detectives corroborated his story with surveillance videos at the warehouse and the discovery of Jenkins' body several weeks later. 
 Buturla said DeFelice could have stopped the killing from happening if he had called police beforehand or decided to help Jenkins instead of setting her up. 
 "It just never had to happen," she said after the verdict. "I'm happy, yeah, but not elated." 
 Jurors deliberated for parts of two days and indicated it wasn't difficult to find DeFelice guilty. 
 "The evidence was all there," one juror said.Biancavilla said Newbeck's trial will be different. Unlike DeFelice, Newbeck gave no statement to police, so the case will be more circumstantial, he said.

LIDEFE11

Joseph DeFelice convicted in death of Mandy Jo Jenkins

A North Amityville man was sentenced Thursday to the maximum of 25 years to life in prison for arranging the murder of his girlfriend as a favor to one of his drug-dealing friends.
"You may not have pulled the trigger, but you made her death a certainty," Judge John Toomey Jr. said in Suffolk District Court in Riverhead before imposing the sentence on Joseph DeFelice, 34, who was convicted by a jury last month of second-degree murder, criminal facilitation and hindering prosecution.
Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla called the crime "probably the most despicable I've ever seen in my 30-year career as a prosecutor." He said DeFelice arranged for the murder of his girlfriend, Mandy Jo Jenkins, 30, at the urging of his longtime friend and then drug-dealing partner, David Newbeck, 36, of Massapequa. Newbeck is scheduled for trial early next year.
Newbeck wanted the woman dead because she had brought identity-theft charges against his girlfriend, Jennifer Russini, the prosecutor said. Russini also had scammed Newbeck, of $28,000, and he wanted her to remain free so that she could fleece other victims and pay him back, the prosecutor said.
In the early morning hours of Aug. 23, 2010, DeFelice took his Rottweiler out of the living quarters he shared with Jenkins at a Halloween merchandise warehouse on Seabro Avenue in North Amityville. He gave Newbeck the key and walked away with the dog, he later told police.
"He served her up to her executioner without a thought, without blinking an eye," Biancavilla told the judge.
DeFelice reported Jenkins missing later that morning, but police were immediately suspicious because there was evidence of a struggle in the living quarters. Her body, with four bullet wounds in the head and one in the chest, was found six weeks later near railroad tracks in North Lindenhurst.
DeFelice finally admitted his role to police after giving several different versions of what happened, and detectives were able to corroborate his story with surveillance videos from the warehouse.
He apologized in court to the Jenkins family, but insisted he was not guilty and hoped to have his conviction overturned on appeal.
He did admit to one failing: "I should have found other people to hang out with," he said.
A sister of Jenkins, Crystal Buturla, 46, of West Babylon, said outside the courtroom that the sentence "was what we expected. It is what it is: a senseless killing."

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Joseph DeFelice gets 25-to-life in girlfriend's murder

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