Third person charged in stabbing death of Conn. man last seen at NYC party
NEW YORK -- A third person has been arrested in connection with the stabbing death of a Connecticut man who vanished last month after a party at a luxury New York City apartment.
Investigators have been working to determine who killed 26-year-old Joseph Comunale, of Stamford, Connecticut. His body was found in a shallow grave in New Jersey a few days after he disappeared.
The New York Police Department said Tuesday that 29-year-old Max Gemma, of Oceanport, New Jersey, has been arrested on charges of hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence.
“Let’s be very clear. he was not involved in any homicide. He was not involved in desecrating Mr. Comunale’s body, and they didn’t charge him with that for the simple reason it didn’t happen, and they know it didn’t happen,” defense attorney Mark Bederow said of the charges against Gemma, CBS New York reports.
James Rackover, 25, of New York City, and Lawrence Dilione, 28, of Jersey City, N.J., were arrested last month on charges that initially included murder. But they were arraigned only on charges of concealing a corpse, tampering with evidence and hindering prosecution in the death.
Authorities said Comunale was last seen alive at a party at Rackover’s Manhattan apartment complex last month. Police said the victim’s bloodied clothing, sheets and towels were found in plastic bags that had been thrown down the building’s garbage chute. The criminal complaint filed for Rackover and Dilione said Dilione led authorities to Comunale’s body, which was found stabbed 15 times and partially burned.
The complaint also cites an unidentified witness who saw Rackover allegedly placing a large duffel bag into the trunk of a black vehicle with tinted windows on Nov. 13. Investigators tracked a car traveling to New Jersey the same night and back to Manhattan early Nov. 14. Surveillance images captured Rackover driving what appeared to be a black Mercedes into a garage nearby his apartment building, parking and leaving the garage.
Cadaver dogs later “alerted” on the car’s trunk area, the complaint says.
The complaint says a black 2015 Mercedes Benz is registered to Jeffrey Rackover, who also lives in the complex, but in a different apartment. James Rackover told investigators Jeffrey is his father. A family friend told CBS New York that Jeffrey Rackover, a celebrity jeweler whose clients reportedly include Melania Trump, adopted the “troubled” younger Rackover and “took him under his wing.”
The younger Rackover’s lawyer told CBS News his client changed his name from James Beaudoin to James Rackover with Jeffrey Rackover’s assistance.
The lawyer, Maurice Sercarz, has said the case has “serious problems” and will be “vigorously” contested. He told CBS News last month the two defendants were initially booked for second-degree murder, but those charges were “mysteriously” missing from the criminal complaint. He believes prosecutors do not have enough evidence to charge his client with murder.
Max Gemma’s alleged involvement wasn’t immediately clear. A criminal complaint was set to be released after his scheduled appearance in Manhattan Criminal Court Tuesday afternoon.
