Bookie murder trial testimony focuses on sweatsuit

Through three first-degree murder trials, suspect Herve Jeannot had never mentioned that he went to Target to buy a black sweatsuit just hours before he allegedly shot a Long Beach man in 2004.

But in his second day on the witness stand Tuesday, prosecutor Sheryl Anania confronted Jeannot with the receipt from that purchase, saying that there could only be one reason he made it. Prosecutors say Jeannot, 30, of Deer Park accepted $4,000 from his co-worker, Mark Orlando, in 2004 to shoot a bookmaker whom Orlando was supposed to pay $17,000.

"You were buying clothes that you could use to wait outside Mark Orlando's car in the dark of night," Anania said.

Jeannot, who denied Anania's charge, is being tried for the fourth time, after two juries deadlocked on a verdict and a conviction by a third jury was overturned on a technicality. He testified at his first two trials but not the third.

Prosecutors say Jeannot crouched behind a car on a dark Island Park street on Dec. 3, 2004, then jumped out and shot Bobby Calabrese, 24, of Long Beach.

Orlando, 39, of Bay Shore, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2005 in connection to the Calabrese killing and is serving a 25-years-to-life sentence.

Jeannot said Orlando shot Calabrese. He said he had no idea that Orlando was going to shoot Calabrese and did not tell police afterward because Orlando threatened him and his family.

Jeannot confessed to the crime when he was arrested, but now says he did so falsely, and under great duress.

The Mineola courtroom was packed as he testified, with Calabrese's friends and family, as well as the county's top prosecutors and at least one criminal court judge filling seats. District Attorney Kathleen Rice even made a brief appearance.

Anania's cross examination is expected to continue Wednesday.

On the witness stand, Jeannot, crisply dressed, answered even the most pointed questions calmly and courteously. He often made eye contact with jurors when speaking, a habit usually limited to practiced witnesses like police.

The receipt for the sweatsuit was just one of the points Anania hammered in a full day of questioning. Jeannot held that he had purchased exercise pants but not a sweatshirt - and that he had not thought it was relevant to mention it in his testimony at previous trials.

Anania also pointed out that Jeannot did not mention that Mark Orlando was wearing a Windbreaker when he was first questioned about the night of the killing. But she said he mentioned it later because he needed to explain how Orlando, who Jeannot says was the shooter, could have concealed a weapon if he was wearing only a T-shirt.

"You had to have him holding a gun, and that's why you added the Windbreaker," she said.

"Not at all," Jeannot said. Later he added, "I'm telling the truth. I'm telling exactly what happened that night."