Third Man Pleads Guilty In 2016 Killing Of Joseph Comunale At Party
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - A third suspect has been charged in connection with the murder of a man at an Upper East Side apartment.
The Manhattan District Attorney says Max Gemma pleaded guilty Friday to hindering prosecution for his role in the death of Joseph Comunale in 2016.
Prosecutors said Gemma helped clean up after the killing.
Communale was beaten and stabbed to death during a party given by James Rackover. He was sentenced to 28 years to life in prison.
A second man, Lawrence Dilione, was sentenced to 23 years behind bars.
Police said Comunale, of Stamford, Connecticut, was at a club in Greenwich Village when he decided to leave with some people he had just met. The group then went to a party at Rackover's high-rise apartment.
At some point, violence broke out.
Prosecutors said medical evidence shows Comunale was beaten by two people and stabbed from both sides.
His father reported him missing after he never came home.
After Comunale was killed, sources said the men tried to dismember his body in a bathtub before tossing it out a window. They then drove his body to Oceanport, New Jersey, where they burned and buried it in a shallow grave.
Prosecutors said EZPass and license plate readers traced Rackover's car to New Jersey the night Comunale went missing.
Gemma will be sentenced in April.