No verdict reached in Baldwin murder retrial

Jurors deliberated for about half the day Wednesday without reaching a verdict in the retrial of a former Freeport man who's accused of first-degree murder in the 1998 shooting deaths of two friends outside a Baldwin tavern.

The Nassau jury doesn't know that another jury in 2000 convicted defendant John Pierotti, now 65, of first-degree murder and weapon charges in the Dec. 23, 1998, slayings of carpenters Willis Frost and Gerard Kennedy Jr. outside what was then known as the Dragger Inn.

A federal judge in 2018 ruled Pierotti, who was serving life behind bars, had a severe hearing impairment that made his first trial unfair and ordered prison officials to release him unless prosecutors took steps to retry him.

On Wednesday morning, acting state Supreme Court Justice Helene Gugerty instructed the jury on the law before deliberations kicked off  around 12:30 p.m.

At their request, jurors later got a copy of Pierotti's statement to police and returned to the courtroom to again hear about elements of charges they must consider and the law on self-defense.

Family members of the victims said it was difficult to wait for a verdict for a second time, now more than two decades after the Baldwin men violently lost their lives.

Frost's sister, Priscilla Brower, 70, of Baldwin, said she wanted Pierotti to get "what he deserves" and be "put back where he belongs."

Kennedy's cousin, Marion Kennedy Marchese, 58, of Copiague, called waiting for a verdict "the worst part."

Pierotti's attorney, Dana Grossblatt, contends Pierotti shot the men in self-defense after wrestling away a .22-caliber revolver from Frost.

Frost had become enraged, she said, when Pierotti returned for a second time to the van that Frost and Kennedy were in to ask for a battery jump for his own van.

But prosecutor Martin Meaney told jurors Pierotti had attacked two unarmed men, shooting Frost, 41, in the chest and Kennedy, 36, in one of his eyes before later concocting a story to explain his actions that didn't make sense.

Pierotti's former girlfriend, Melissa Johnson, testified he left their home with a .22-caliber revolver that had belonged to her late father and confessed to killing two people when he returned. The gun was never found.

But Grossblatt portrayed Johnson, who has three children with Pierotti, as a "pathological liar" and drug addict who changed her story months after first insisting on Pierotti's innocence.

Grossblatt said after court Wednesday she believed jurors were doing exactly what the judge asked of them, "evaluating every single charge and determining what elements fit where."

Prosecutors declined to comment.

Deliberations will continue Thursday.