By:JOSEPH KELLARD
Telese was convicted on two counts each of intentional murder, murder committed during a robbery, and murder committed in the course of a kidnapping. He will be sentenced on May 19 and faces 25 years to life.
Prosecutors pointed to Telese's thumbprint, which was found on the plastic Foodtown shopping bag used to suffocate Richard Eigen, 17; and two strands of his hair that were found inside the bandanna used to strangle Susan Eigen, 41, at their home in Ocean Harbor Drive on Feb. 26, 1984, as the primary evidence against him.
When he took the stand on March 14, Telese said his fingerprints were on both the plastic bag and a bank receipt in Susan Eigen's name, dated three days before the murders, because he and Susan went to her bank and a piece of paper fell in her car that he picked up and gave back to her.
According to Telese, she was giving him $5 for Coors beer, which he bought at a Foodtown supermarket and carried back to her house in the shopping bag. But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla pointed out that Coors was not distributed in New York state until 1987, three years after the murders. Telese could not explain how his hairs got on the bandanna, or how a urine stain with his DNA ended up on a bed sheet in one of Susan's children's rooms.
Telese's defense attorneys, Michael Washor and Michael Pollok, argued that police had found traces of the semen of Susan Eigen's boyfriend, Melvin Weitz, both inside Susan and on her cheek. Weitz testified that they had sex the day before the murder and that he was at a family barbecue the next day. The prosecution argued that Weitz's semen may have ended up on Susan's cheek after Telese beat her with an unidentified object that had the fluid on it.
The defense also tried to raise reasonable doubt by pointing to a then 15-year-old runaway, Kimberly Leghart, from Levittown, who told police that her boyfriend at the time, Gerard Linblatt, confided to her that he killed the Eigens. Homicide Detective Sgt. Herbert Daub testified that police questioned Linblatt, who has since died, and took samples of his fingerprints, hair and blood, but none of it matched the physical evidence found at the crime scene.
Prosecutors said Telese went to the Eigen home, next door to his cousin's house, knowing Susan was home and intent on robbing her to help support his cocaine habit. Telese bound her to her bed, sexually assaulted her and strangled her with the bandanna. When Richard came home, Telese, fearing he would reveal his identity, bound him to a banister and suffocated him with the plastic bag, according to Biancavilla.
At the time of the murders, Telese's fingerprints were not on file. He was arrested in 1987 for possession of cocaine, but because he was arrested by federal authorities, the prints were never made available to local authorities. The following year, Telese applied for a job as a school bus driver in New York City, and his fingerprints were taken for a background check.
Due to a new policy, enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, whereby law enforcement organizations share databases and information, police said they were able to match Telese's fingerprints to the crime scene, and arrested him at his home in Nanuet on June 5, 2002.
The day after his arrest, Telese signed a statement in which he admitted being at the Eigen home the day of the murders, bringing with him two people he said were drug dealers, in order to rob the house to support his drug habit. But he said he did not kill Susan and fled once he heard someone at the front door. This admission was inconsistent with Telese's later testimony that he was at a family function in New York City the day of the murders, and that detectives had beaten him, striking him in the face and stomach, to sign the statement.
