By:JOSEPH KELLARD
After the double homicide case was left open for 18 years, Telese was arrested last June and charged with the murders of Susan Eigen, 41, and her son, Richard, 17, who were found in their Ocean Harbor Drive home by Eigen's 11-year-old son, Michael, on Feb. 26, 1984.
"The prosecution rested its case on Friday," Rick Hinshaw, public information officer for District Attorney Denis Dillon, told the Herald. "The prosecution spent the week presenting the basic evidence, including fingerprint evidence and DNA evidence. And we had testimony primarily from police personnel detailing that evidence, and their own investigatory evidence."
Homicide Detective Robert Brezeski testified that the day after his arrest on June 5, 2003, Telese stated that he did go to the Eigens' house with two drug dealers with the intent to rob Susan, but did not kill her, an admission inconsistent with Telese's defense that he was at a family function the day of the murders.
According to Brezeski, Telese said he needed money to support a cocaine habit, and went to Eigen's house, which was near where his cousin, Ralph Milo, lived. Telese asked to use Eigen's phone, and she let him in, after which Telese and the drug dealers ransacked her bedroom and found $1,000 in cash. Telese said that after hearing someone at the front door, he and the dealers fled back to Brooklyn, and that he didn't heard about Susan's or Richard's murder until a year later.
Telese was arrested last June after police matched thumbprints and hairs found on a plastic shopping bag that was used to suffocate Richard and on a bandanna used to strangle Susan. At the time of the murder, police were unable to connect the prints, but officials said they were able to make a match from prints Telese gave when he applied for a job to drive a school bus in 1988.
Earlier in the week, Homicide Detective Sgt. Herbert Daub testified that a then-15-year-old runaway, Kimberly Leghart, from Levittown, told police that her boyfriend at the time, Gerard Linblatt, confided that he killed Susan and Richard.
After police questioned Linblatt, who has since died, they took samples from Linblatt of his fingerprints, hair and blood. His prints did not match those found on the plastic bag used to suffocate Richard or one found on a bank receipt in Susan Eigen's name, nor did his hair match one found on the bandanna use to strangle Susan, according to prosecutors.
The defense began presenting its case Monday. There was no word as to whether Telese would take the stand in his own defense.
