Redinel Dervishaj Will Not Be Indicted In S.I. Stabbing Of Groom-To-Be
NEW YORK (1010 WINS) -- No charges will be filed in connection with a deadly fight last month at an engagement party on Staten Island.
A grand jury has decided Redinel Dervishaj, 35, was acting in self defense when he allegedly stabbed groom-to-be Anthony Lacertosa with a butcher knife outside the Espana restaurant in Annadale on March 17.
Sources told 1010 WINS the grand jury in Richmond County saw surveillance video of the fight and declined to indict Dervishaj.
"My thoughts and prayers go out to Antonio Lacertosa's family and to his fianceé as they try to cope with the pain of their loss," Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said in a statement. "His death was a tragic and senseless end to a night that began as a celebration of a young couple's new life together."
Family members said Lacertosa's half brother and fiancée, Bridgette Schneider, tried to save his life by performing CPR, but it was too late. Lacertosa was pronounced dead at Staten Island University Hospital.
Witnesses told police Dervishaj is a friend of the restaurant manager and that the stabbing happened after some sort of brawl over alleged drunkenness.
Dervishaj was arrested at an aunt's home in a suburb of Chicago on March 20. He has previously spent more than three years in a New York prison for a wild 2007 shootout on a Queens street with two other Albanian figures.
Dervishaj's older brother, Plaurent Dervishaj, is apparently an Albanian mob figure targeted by the feds, CBS 2's Pablo Guzman reported earlier.
Redinel Dervishaj is still in Rikers Island on an immigration hold. The next move is for federal immigration officials to make.
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