James Quininchetta, of Ridge, pleads not guilty in shooting death of Rebecca Roth in Moriches
Suffolk police at the site where a Rebecca Roth, 33, was shot and killed in her car at the Tall Oaks Apartment Complex in Moriches on Friday Credit: John Roca
A Ridge man pleaded not guilty on Saturday in the fatal shooting of a Moriches woman who was found dead in a car by her mother Friday morning in the parking lot of the Tall Oaks Apartments in Moriches.
James Quininchetta, 40, was charged with second-degree murder in the shooting death of Rebecca Roth, 33. Judge John Zollo ordered Quininchetta held without bail at his arraignment Saturday in First District Court in Central Islip.
In court, Suffolk County prosecutor Eric Aboulafia said Quininchetta killed Roth because she owed him $1,500 and refused to pay.
James Quininchetta, of Ridge, is arraigned at First District Court in Central Islip on Saturday.
Credit: John Roca
"The defendant took her life by repeatedly firing a semiautomatic handgun on her seven times as she sat in the driver's seat of her vehicle with the intention of going to work that morning," Aboulafia told the judge. "The victim in this case was found by her mother some six hours later, shot to death [and] beyond any medical attention."
"My client maintains his innocence, and we're looking forward to a trial," Quininchetta's defense attorney, George Duncan, told Newsday after the court appearance.
Suffolk police said in charging documents that Quininchetta confessed to police on video before he was charged.
Roth was Quininchetta's ex-girlfriend, according to a complaint filed by police in First District Court. The document says Quininchetta shot Roth "multiple times striking her in the upper and lower part of her body."
Aboulafia said Quininchetta "provided details that only the killer could know" in his confession to police. Those details included "the caliber of the weapon, the amount of shots that were fired," that he left a fanny pack at the scene, and that he disposed of a sweatshirt he was wearing in a nearby dumpster, according to the prosecutor.
Suffolk County police recovered the fanny pack, which, Aboulafia said, contained ammunition and fingerprints that matched Quininchetta's.
Sam Kmack covers the Town of Islip for Newsday. He is a graduate of the University of Southern California and previously worked as a city watchdog reporter in the Phoenix metro area, as well as an investigative journalist at the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.
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