The “adopted son” of a famous Manhattan jeweler has been indicted for murder in the stabbing death of a Hofstra grad at his luxury Midtown apartment more than six months ago, sources said.
James Rackover, 26, and Larry Dilione, 28, were arraigned on second-degree murder raps Wednesday in Manhattan Supreme Court for the brutal slaying of Joseph Comunale Nov. 13, 2016.
Defense Lawyer Michael Pappa made a lengthy bail argument, asking Justice Charles Solomon to release Dilione on $2 million bond backed by the property of his parents who were in the gallery.
He said that bondsman Ira Judelson was even prepared to fit Dilione with an ankle monitor to secure the arrangement.
“I feel certainly bad for his family,” said Justice Charles Solomon as the victim’s father, Pat Comunale, softly sobbed. “But I feel a lot, a lot worse for the parents of that young man who was killed.”
The judge ordered that Dilione and Rackover, who describes himself as the adopted son of jeweler-to-the-stars Jeffrey Rackover, be held without bail.
Rackover’s defense lawyer, Maurice Sercarz, said he would reserve a bail argument for a future date. Unable to make his $1 million bond, Rackover has been in jail since his arrest while Dilione had been free on $300,000 bond.
Charges against the third defendant, Max Gemma, 29, were not upgraded and he was released.
After the brief hearing, the victim’s teary-eyed father hugged several detectives and thanked Assistant District Attorney Antoinette Carter for her work on the grisly case.
Pat Comunale declined to comment, but family lawyer Robert Abrams made a brief statement.
“We truly appreciate all the hard work of the district attorney’s office and the New York City police department in ensuring that these two murderers were remanded to jail and will now face prosecution for the vicious and horrific murder of Joey,” the attorney said.
Comunale, 26, of Stamford, Conn., was savagely beaten and stabbed to death at Rackover’s Sutton Place pad after an argument over cigarettes, according to court papers.
Dilione allegedly told police he punched Comunale unconscious but that it was Rackover who strangled him, stabbed him in the head and tried to dismember him with a knife.
The panicked pair dumped Comunale’s corpse in Oceanport, NJ, where they doused it in gasoline and set it alight, Dilione allegedly told authorities.
Rackover’s much older guardian, Jeffrey Rackover, had lavished the accused killer with gifts and even paid for his posh apartment a few floors below his own pad.
The jeweler has since distanced himself from Rackover, a troubled ex-con from Florida who changed his last name from Beaudoin.
Defense lawyers for the three men have repeatedly questioned the strength of the prosecution’s case and the delay in handing down a murder indictment.
They insist that Dilione’s statements, which led authorities to Comunale’s body, will likely be tossed and evidence suppressed because cops interviewed him when they knew he had a lawyer.