The family of a woman murdered by a heroin addict reacted with fury today after it was revealed her killer is set to receive her $280,000 inheritance.
Brandon Palladino, 24, was jailed in 2009 after a jury found him guilty of killing his mother-in-law, Dianne Edwards, by strangling her when she caught him trying to steal jewellery from her Long Island home.
Palladino admitted he killed Mrs Edwards, 59, by putting her in a headlock and choking her until she died, suffering a cardiac arrest.
Mrs Edwards' only daughter, Deanna Palladino, inherited her savings, worth around £280,000 but when she died last February, she left everything to her jailed husband.
Mrs Edwards' sister, Donna Larsen, told the New York Post: 'It's an outrage. He can't have that money - it's just not right. It's ludicrous.'
She said she would rather see the money go to the state or to charity.
She also claimed her dead niece, Deanna Palladino, was part of the robbery that led to the murder and took part in an attempted cover-up.
'She gave him the key to my sister's house, and then they later went there together before the police were called.
'She was part of the cover-up and even pawned some of my sister's jewellery. It's a slap in the face,' said Mrs Larsen.
Deanna is believed to have used some of her sister's inheritance to pay for her killer's defence.
Mrs Edwards, a vice president for insurance company Advantage Title, was found unconscious and bleeding in the upstairs bedroom of her West Hills Road home in December 2009.
At his trial in Suffolk, prosecutors said Palladino's DNA was found under the fingernails of his mother-in-law and matched traces found on the victim's jewellery box.
Palladino, who lived two blocks away with his wife, then went home, his face covered with scratches.
He tried to claim in court that he had broken up a home invasion at Mrs Edwards' house.
Palladino now stands to come out of jail in his 40s with a small fortune waiting for him.
The killer made a deal to serve 25 years to avoid the maximum life sentence.
Donna Larsen's husband Andy said today: 'He took her life - he can't take her money too.'
To be more accurate, he's inheriting from is wife, who inherited from her mother. He's not directly inheriting from the person he killed.
ReplyDeleteAs such, there's little the law can do about it.
Of course, it's still an incredibly maddening result.