By: JOSEPH KELLARD
Mark Orlando, 34, of Bay Shore, and Herve Jeannot, 23, of Deer Park, were arrested in Farmingdale by members of the Nassau County Police Department-s Bureau of Special Operations Dec. 9, and charged with shooting Robert Calabrese, 24, several times in the head six days earlier on Broadway. Both men were charged with second-degree murder, and were arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on Dec. 11.
According to detectives, Calabrese, a mortgage broker in Garden City, had placed bets for Orlando on football, basketball and other sporting events within the past two months. Orlando-s debt to Calabrese grew to $18,000, police said.
Police said that on Dec. 3, Orlando called Calabrese and agreed on a time and place for them to meet in Island Park, under the pretense that Orlando was going to pay his debt, police said. At around 8:30 p.m., Orlando lured the Long Beach man away from heavily traveled Austin Boulevard and behind businesses on Broadway, near Georgia Avenue.
There Calabrese got out of his 2003 Infiniti and approached Orlando, believing he was going to receive a payment from him, police said. Jeannot, meanwhile, sneaked up behind Calabrese and shot him in the back of the head multiple times, according to police. The pair left him lying in the street near his idling car. Calabrese died at the scene, and a short time later a passing motorist found him face-down on the pavement.
Originally, they were to meet on Austin Boulevard, and then Orlando called Calabrese and changed the location to that spot on Broadway, said Detective Sgt. Anthony Repalone. ... Calabrese was under the impression that he was going to collect money. When he gets there he sees Orlando, we suspect Jeannot was somewhere hiding. When Calabrese gets out of his car, Jeannot almost immediately shot him at close range.
Police interviewed members of Calabrese-s family and his friends in order to learn more about the victim-s life, and that information led them to Orlando and Jeannot. At a press conference Dec. 11, Detective Lt. Dennis Farrell of the Nassau County Homicide Squad said that the suspects were caught on surveillance cameras at nearby businesses, videotape of which proved instrumental in the investigation. Orlando and Jeannot worked together at Professional Credit Services, a collection agency in East Farmingdale, and were arrested as they left the business the evening of Dec. 9.
Police said they have yet to recover the gun used in the shooting. They had responded to the crime scene after several residents and merchants reported hearing gunshots just before 8:40 p.m. on Dec. 3.
Calabrese was the son of Robert Calabrese, a retired Long Beach police officer, and Kathy Calabrese, a teacher-s assistant in the Long Beach School District. He was a standout wrestler at Kellenberg High School in the 1990s, capturing the state Catholic High School Athletic Association-s 125-pound championship in 1997.
Calabrese was buried at Cemetery of the Holy Rood in Westbury on Dec. 9.
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