Fourth murder trial in Island Park slaying starts

For the fourth time since 2005, Herve Jeannot listened to opening arguments in his own murder trial, earnestly gazing Monday morning at the jurors who will decide his fate.

It is rare for a defendant to undergo even two trials on the same charges, experts say, but this marks the fourth trial for Jeannot who is on trial for first-degree murder.

The first two trials, in 2005 and 2006, ended with hung juries. The third, also in 2006, ended in a conviction, but was reversed when an appellate court overturned that verdict last year.

In his opening Monday, prosecutor Stephen Antignani said that Jeannot, a former Marine Corps sharpshooter, accepted $4,000 from his friend Mark Orlando to shoot Bobby Calabrese, 24, a bet runner who was supposed to collect gambling debts from them.

But on the night in 2004 when the three men were set to meet on a small side street in Island Park, Jeannot hid behind Orlando's car, jumped out, and killed Calabrese within seconds, Antignani said.

"This defendant's love for money, and the fact that he had that love in common with his good buddy Mark Orlando, led him to commit this horrific crime," Antignani told the jury.

Orlando, 39, of Bay Shore, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2005 after one trial and is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence.

When Jeannot was arrested, he confessed to the killing, prosecutors said.

But Jeannot's new defense lawyer, William Petrillo, of Rockville Centre, said that confession was coerced. In fact, Petrillo said, that confession holds at least as much evidence of Jeannot's innocence as prosecutors say it holds of his guilt.

Petrillo said Jeannot went with Orlando to meet Calabrese, but was caught unawares when Orlando pulled out a gun and shot Calabrese three times. He said Orlando then threatened to kill Jeannot and his family if Jeannot told anyone what had happened.

That threat, plus fear that police would pin the murder exclusively on him, were the reasons Jeannot confessed to a murder he did not commit, Petrillo told the jury. But Petrillo said Jeannot told police that Calabrese was lying down when he was shot for the first time, and that Jeannot disposed of the gun by throwing it out a car window - both facts that Petrillo said will be proved false.