Four people were charged yesterday with luring a Rockville Centre man to a house, clubbing him with a wrench, choking him with electrical cord, and while he was still alive stuffing him in plastic bags, then dumping his body on the side of the road in Oak Beach.
As the bludgeoning took place, the 15-year-old son of one suspect was told by his mother to watch and later told to help carry the body out to her car, police said. The teen was not charged and will likely be called as a witness against the suspects, including his mother.
Police said the four decided to kill Paul Vincent Lamariana, 49, because he had allegedly harassed and threatened one of the suspects, Kathryn Kralovich, and her 8-year-old daughter over a period of several months. Police said that Kralovich, 35, a methadone user, had met Lamariana in February while they were enrolled in a drug treatment clinic at the Nassau County Medical Center, and that the two developed an antagonistic relationship.
"They perceived the victim was threatening and abusive to Kathryn and her daughter," said Lt. John Gierasch, head of the Suffolk Homicide Squad. The exact nature of the alleged harassment was not clear, but Gierasch said it involved alleged threats, by phone and in person, to assault Kralovich and her daughter. Gierasch said that there was no evidence he ever carried out any threats and that Kralovich never reported him to the police.
"There is no substantial abuse that we can discern," Gierasch said.
Assistant District Attorney James Scarmozzino explained the murder motive this way: "They had enough of this guy."
"It's a bizarre one," Scarmozzino said.
The four suspects were charged with second-degree murder. They are Kralovich, 2312 Sixth St., East Meadow, who according to her legal aid attorney has taken methadone daily for the past 12 years; Susan O'Connell, 35, of 407 Deer Road, Ronkonkoma, a house cleaner accused of driving Lamariana to the house and whose son allegedly watched the murder; Maurice Mathie, 21, of 63 Otis Road, Islip Terrace, who officials say clubbed and choked the victim; and Andrew Nappi, 23, of 2259 Union Blvd., Bay Shore, who allegedly helped the other three hog-tie Lamariana with electrical wire.
The four were arraigned yesterday in First District Court in Hauppauge before Judge Gerard D'Emilio, who ordered all but O'Connell held at the Suffolk County Jail without bail. O'Connell was held on $250,000 bail. All are scheduled to return to court Tuesday for felony hearings.
Adrian DiLuzio, attorney for Nappi, said in court that his client was the least involved of all the suspects and may have been only a witness.
Mathie was not represented by an attorney at his arraignment, and Legal Aid Attorney Marlaine Cragg said the two women would plead innocent.
Suffolk detectives began to track the four hours after two road workers found Lamariana's body in a wooded area off Ocean Parkway Tuesday. After identifying the victim through his fingerprints, on file because he was once convicted of selling drugs, detectives spoke to his mother, with whom he lived. She told police her son, an unemployed hairdresser, had been a friend of Kralovich's since they met in February.
The mother said that since her son disappeared, Kralovich had been by several times to say he was in New York City and wanted her to know he would not be coming home, Gierasch said. After questioning Kralovich and arresting her early Wednesday, police were led to O'Connell and the two others. The three were arrested later Wednesday.
O'Connell and Mathie gave videotaped statements to police and the other two suspects gave written statements. All four admitted some involvement in events surrounding the murder, authorities said.
This, according to Gierasch and Scarmozzino, is what occurred:
Last weekend, Lamariana went to Kralovich's house on several occasions, harassing her and threatening to assault her. On Sunday, Lamariana continued his threats while O'Connell, Mathie and Nappi were there. The four decided they had had enough and would kill Lamariana.
After Lamariana left the house, O'Connell telephoned him and persuaded him to return. She drove her car to pick him up. When Lamariana arrived, Mathie was standing on a loveseat behind a curtain by the side of the door holding a wrench.
As Lamariana walked through the front door, Mathie slammed him on the back of the head, knocking him to the ground.
The four then bound his hands and ankles together with electrical wire. And Nappi was quoted as telling the victim: "You're not going to live. You're going to die." Mathie then wrapped a piece of wire around his neck three times and yanked it.
Then the four - aided by the 15-year-old - shoved two plastic bags over Lamariana , wrapped him in a piece of all-weather carpet that they then tied together with more wire, and carried him to the trunk of O'Connell's car and drove to Oak Beach...
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