DA: Laffer spent days casing drugstores

David Laffer spent days casing drugstores before deciding on Haven Drugs in Medford as his target, shooting and killing four people to steal prescription painkillers, authorities said Thursday.

In a feeble attempt to cover his tracks, crime scene video shows that Laffer tried to wipe the counter clean of his fingerprints, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

Another surveillance video minutes later showed Laffer, 33, of Medford, and his wife, Melinda Brady, 29 -- the accused getaway car driver -- dropping by a nearby convenience store. The reason, the district attorney said, was "to set up an alibi."

"More than any other event in recent memory," Spota said, "this horrific crime exposes one of our most basic fears and that fear is of a gunman who is willing, and in this case almost eager, to randomly and senselessly kill."

Spota, revealing chilling new details of the slayings, said the video clearly showed Laffer methodically executing four people in cold blood so that he could "feed an ugly addiction to unlawful painkillers."

Laffer, accused of killing two store employees and two customers, appeared in court Thursday as a nine-count indictment was unsealed, including five counts of first-degree murder. The murder charges reflect the deaths of the four victims in the Father's Day shooting, plus an umbrella count for multiple murders. He faces a maximum of five consecutive life sentences without parole.

"Mr. Laffer had been looking for a place to rob for days before finally settling on the Haven drugstore," Spota said.

Haven Drugs' surveillance video shows two employees making small talk just before Laffer walked up to the pharmacy counter on June 19, Spota said.

Assistant Jennifer Mejia, 17, told pharmacist Raymond Ferguson she and her mother had shopped for a dress her mother could wear to Mejia's upcoming graduation ceremony. She also told Ferguson, 45, she had attended Mass the night before.

"These were virtually the last words Ms. Mejia ever spoke," Spota said.

When Laffer entered the store, he engaged Ferguson in a "very normal conversation" about drug interactions. Then he told Mejia he wanted to speak to Ferguson privately.

Mejia walked off to an adjoining alcove. Laffer continued to chat with Ferguson, Spota said.

At the same time, the video showed Laffer concealing his right hand in a black backpack, Spota said. The backpack slowly rose just before Laffer shot Ferguson in the abdomen, firing the gun through the backpack. Ferguson grabbed his stomach and fell backward, but was still alive, Spota said.

Laffer then moved out of camera view into the store's storage room to kill Mejia, the district attorney said. Spota said two shots were audible, as was the sound of Mejia screaming. Laffer returned to Ferguson -- on his back and still moving -- and shot him twice in the face at point blank range, Spota said.

Laffer then shot two customers as they entered the store, one shortly after the other. Spota said Laffer hid near the front door in an aisle so he could sneak up behind Bryon Sheffield, 71, shooting him in the back of the head.

He then went back to filling his backpack when he noticed Jaime Taccetta, 33, come in, Spota said. He ambushed Taccetta in the same manner. Sheffield and Taccetta "never even knew" Laffer was there before he "executed" them, Spota said.

In the "deathly silence of the pharmacy," Spota said, Laffer filled his backpack with bottles of pills. He took "great pains" to wipe off the pharmacy countertop with the sleeve and the bottom of the long-sleeved, black-hooded sweatshirt he wore. As he did it, he left damning evidence, Spota said.

"He does not even realize that the pieces of paper with the telltale fingerprints have fallen to the floor," the DA said.

Investigators said they found two separate prints of Laffer's left index finger on a sign he inadvertently touched in his haste to fill his backpack. The prints were matched to those from Laffer's gun permit.

In addition to his sweatshirt, Laffer wore a hat, sunglasses, and a fake beard to rob the store, Spota said. Part of his disguise, the DA said, was to use mascara to make his fake beard and eyebrows look darker. When police searched his car, they found a tube of mascara.

Other evidence uncovered by investigators includes seven shell casings -- six inside the pharmacy and another outside -- that were matched to Laffer's .45-caliber pistol, and 1,000 hydrocodone pills found in an upstairs closet of Laffer's home, Spota said. Police are still searching for thousands more stolen pills.

Prosecutors said Laffer and his wife appeared on security cameras obtained from a convenience store, a Hess Express on Medford Avenue about 30 to 40 minutes after the robbery, purchasing beverages "as if nothing had ever happened" in an attempt to manufacture an alibi, Spota said.

"He was shaved and got rid of the hoodie and presented a different view of himself," a source with knowledge of the investigation said.

An employee at the convenience store said detectives asked for the surveillance video last week without explaining why. The store clerk said he did not recognize Laffer or his wife, who lived only a few miles away.

Others who work along Medford Ave. recognized Laffer. Volkal Eskip, who works at a BP station in Medford, said Laffer came in about once a month, always wearing the oversized T-shirts and shorts he was photographed in during his arrest last week.

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Standing quietly in a gray T-shirt and dark pants, Laffer entered a plea of not guilty through attorney Mary Elizabeth Abbate during the 10-minute hearing Thursday' morning in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead.

He only spoke once, replying "yes" when the judge asked if he wanted his current lawyer to continue representing him.

Judge James Hudson ordered Laffer remanded to Suffolk County jail.

About two dozen family members of the four victims -- the pharmacist, an assistant and two customers -- sat quietly in three rows inside the courtroom during the hearing, some patting one another on the back, and leaning against one another for support. The families of the victims walked out in groups, all grim-faced, some of them in tears. Laffer is next due in court on Sept. 8.

Spota said he has assured the victims' families that prosecutors would push for a conviction and for a life sentence.

"In my view, he should spend the rest of his life behind bars," Spota said.

Mejia's father, Rene Mejia, attended the arraignment with his wife and their surviving daughter.

"I don't feel nothing," Mejia said later by telephone. "What do I have to feel? God has to forgive him."

Mejia said he tried not to think about the details of his daughter's death. "It kind of makes me think of how my daughter suffered," Rene Mejia said.

With Carl MacGowan, Gary Dymski and John Valenti