GOSHEN - An Orange County jury on Monday convicted Brooklyn Rabbi Victor Koltun of three counts of first-degree murder, two counts of conspiracy and a felony weapon charge in the 2010 shooting deaths of Gerald and Francis Piscopo.
The bodies of Gerald, 28, and Francis, 49, were found shot
execution-style in a vacant house in Newburgh the night of Nov. 4, 2010.
Following three weeks of testimony and about a day of
deliberations, the jury convicted Koltun, 44, of three out of the four
first-degree murder counts he faced as well as convicting him on two counts of
conspiracy to commit murder.
Francis Piscopo had been trying aggressively to collect a
debt Koltun owed to a friend. Prosecutors argued that Koltun decided to hire
ex-cons Frank Lewis and Craig Fennell to end those efforts. Gerald Piscopo had
driven his uncle Francis to the meeting, where Lewis shot them.
Senior Assistant District Attorney David Byrne, aided by
Assistant District Attorney Steven Goldberg, presented a complex, detailed case
to the jury.
They used phone and GPS records and security video footage to
substantiate testimony of witnesses such as Koltun's driver, who drove the
conspirators around on the day of the slayings.
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