By JOSEPH KELLARD
Jeannot was being tried for the third time for the murder of Calabrese, who was gunned down in a secluded section of Broadway in Island Park. A Nassau County Court jury voted to convict after deliberating for nearly four hours, capping a four-week trial, and Jeannot faces a term of life without parole when he is sentenced Sept. 18 by Judge Meryl Berkowitz. Two previous trials, in September 2005 and February 2006, failed to yield a verdict.
"We're just very happy he was convicted and justice [was] served," said Kathy Calabrese, Robert's mother. "It's not going to bring my son back, but at least this evil person will go to jail, hopefully for the rest of his life."
Compared with the juries in the previous two trials, Calabrese added, "This jury seemed bright and interested in the case."
Robert Calabrese Jr., a mortgage broker, was a champion wrestler at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale in the 1990s, capturing the Catholic High School Athletic Association state title at 125 pounds in 1997. He graduated from Long Beach High School. His father, Robert Sr., is a retired Long Beach police officer and his mother is a mainstay at East Elementary School, where for years she has served as a teaching assistant.
Barring appeals, the conviction ends three years of legal wrangling between the Nassau County district attorney's office and Jeannot's lawyers, who have long argued that their client was not the shooter.
In June 2005, Jeannot's accomplice, Mark Orlando, 34, of Bayshore, was convicted of second-degree murder in connection with the killing. Orlando was sentenced to 25 years to life two months later, and eventually testified against Jeannot.
Prosecutors argued that Calabrese had placed bets for Orlando on football, basketball and other sports events in the fall of 2004, when Orlando accumulated a $17,000 debt. On Dec. 3, investigators said, Orlando called Calabrese and agreed on a time and place to meet in Island Park, under the pretense that Orlando would pay his debt. At around 8:30 p.m., prosecutors said, Orlando lured Calabrese away from heavily traveled Austin Boulevard and behind a row of businesses on Broadway, near Georgia Avenue.
Once there, police said, Calabrese got out of his 2003 Infiniti and approached Orlando, believing he was about to receive a payment from him. The two men met between their cars and hugged, at which point, prosecutors said, Jeannot emerged from a darkened area where he had been hiding. Orlando grabbed the victim's sweatshirt from behind and yanked it up over his head to immobilize him for Jeannot, who, the D.A. claimed, came up behind Calabrese and shot him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber magnum revolver. Then, according to the prosecution, after Calabrese dropped to the ground, Jeannot shot him twice more in the head. Calabrese was found hours later, face-down in the street, by passing motorists.
One of Jeannot's lawyers, Daniel Hochheiser of Manhattan, argued that his client was merely a witness to the crime and failed to report the murder for fear that Orlando would harm him and his family, and that police coerced a confession from Jeannot.
During Orlando's trial, his attorney, Dennis Lemke of Mineola, argued that there was reasonable doubt about Orlando's motives, since, Lemke claimed, his client initially made money with Calabrese. He also claimed that Orlando was unaware that Jeannot planned to shoot Calabrese, and he didn't call the police about the murder because Jeannot had threatened to kill him and his wife if he revealed the crime.
Orlando and Jeannot worked together at Professional Credit Services, a collection agency in East Farmingdale, where they were arrested Dec. 9, 2004. Both were originally charged with second-degree murder before Jeannot's charges were upgraded.
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