Suspect's confession in homicide scrutinized

In a small windowless interrogation room, Nassau Homicide Det. Derek Partee recalled, he confronted a suspect, Herve Jeannot, about the part he played in Bobby Calabrese's killing.

Partee told Jeannot that Jeannot's buddy, Mark Orlando, was in the next interrogation room over, pinning the blame for the murder on him. If he didn't confess to what he did, the detective told Jeannot, Orlando would walk away and Jeannot would take "the full weight" of the case, Partee testified yesterday.

"You're going to let this white [expletive] do this to you?" Partee testified that he asked Jeannot on that early morning in 2005. "He's putting this [expletive] on you."

Partee, testifying in Nassau County Court yesterday during Jeannot's fourth murder trial in Mineola, said Jeannot, then 23, lifted his head and confessed to accepting $4,000 from Orlando to shoot Bobby Calabrese, a 24-year-old bet runner to whom Orlando owed $17,000.

Jeannot signed a written confession to shooting Calabrese on the night he was arrested.

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

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

Through a full day on the stand, Partee maintained that the techniques he used to elicit the confession were standard and legitimate.

But Jeannot's defense is that his confession was false and coerced because he felt if he did not admit to the crime, Orlando could hurt him or his family, or police could blame him entirely for the murder.

In court, Jeannot's lawyer, William Petrillo, of Rockville Centre, played a videotape showing the room where Jeannot was interrogated. He has said in the past that he wanted to show the jury how small and isolated it is.

Nassau police have since begun videotaping interrogations in all serious robberies and homicide cases.

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

But Petrillo said in his opening that Jeannot wasn't involved in the scheme and was caught off guard when Orlando pulled out a gun and shot Calabrese three times.