Homicide New York Season 3 Episode 1

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13:41always got along because of our love for sports. I was a big hockey fan and I took

13:46him to his first hockey game and he caught the bug and he started skating

13:52at five years old and he started playing competitive hockey at eight. Every year

13:57we took a trip whether it was a New York Giant football game or a Ranger game, a

14:02Yankee game, we always connected through sports. Joey loved his food, Italian food

14:10even after he moved out. Most nights he was here for dinner and he he was a bit

14:15even though he loved his sports he would always put on the Food Network to see

14:19what was good to make and what was what I could make for him. Joey graduated Hofstra

14:27with a business degree. Fortunately for Joey and his friends I owned a security

14:33business on Long Island and if you talk to his friends they'll tell you he was the

14:37HR director. He placed all of his friends in my company knowing that they would

14:42get a start there. He used to bring a lot of girls over to see if I give him the

14:50thumbs up. Every one I gave the thumbs up I was hoping he'd get married but his dad

14:55and I'd tell him 35 is what he'd always tell me.

15:01You know one of the qualities about Joey is when I talked to his friends they

15:04always told me that Joey was their best friend and I was like well how is it

15:08possible that one kid could have 40 best friends. You know I think they always say

15:14you know you never judge a man by how much money he has

15:22but by how many friends he has.

15:38Pat was visibly upset so at this point I just paused the video and I asked his brother Joseph

15:46to take Pat and go back to my precinct and just wait for me there.

15:52Once the detective suspicion levels starts getting raised that's when they call the homicide squad.

15:58Detective Castro was the assigned detective from the 17th detective squad and I was the detective from

16:03the homicide squad that caught this case. But it's not just us all the detectives in that squad and all

16:09the detectives in the homicide squad they work together to investigate the case.

16:16Yeoman calls me and he goes Marty come over here help me with this. So I go over to the

16:23building.

16:24There's really only two options either Joey's still in the building or he left the building. You need to

16:31search the building from top to bottom.

16:35I grabbed the building super and I'm like let's go to the roof. We'll start at the roof and come

16:39down.

16:40We'll go upstairs exit the elevator. But uh I'm afraid of heights.

16:48I could see in the corner of my eyes the 59th Street Bridge, Ed Koch Bridge.

16:52And I'm trying to not to look over to realize exactly how high I am off the floor.

17:01And then once I was satisfied that Joey was not on the roof I started doing the searches floor by

17:08floor.

17:09Down 36 flights of stairs. Down into the basement. Into the cellar. Into the courtyards.

17:16And I'm hoping to run into Joey and like hey wake up. Go home. And uh it never happened.

17:27I go to the parking garage. And I ask the parking attendant. I go hey James Rackover apartment 4C.

17:34Does he park his uh car here? He goes oh yeah he drives a big black Mercedes.

17:39And I go is that the car that's parked over there? He goes yeah that's the car.

17:44Looked pristine. Clean. Except that it was covered in dust. Brown dust. Maybe a little like dirt.

17:51Took a look around and uh I noticed that there was like brown smudges. Like fingerprint smudges.

17:56On the rear trunk lid. And I'm like something didn't sit right with me at that point. I said we're

18:04securing this car until we could figure out what went on. But the parking attendant says James Rackover.

18:10He doesn't own this car. It's owned by a gentleman who lives in apartment 32B. Jeffrey Rackover.

18:19So the name Jeffrey Rackover kind of rang a bell because he has a billboard when you come outside

18:25of the Midtown Tunnel going into Queens. He would sell jewelry to Oprah. He helped Trump get his engagement

18:32ring for Melania. So he was known to be the jeweler to the stars. I'll be honest with you. Everyone

18:39was like oh yeah Jeffrey Rackover is the jeweler to the stars. I don't know who he is. Yeah I

18:46don't

18:46buy jewelry in that uh income bracket. The concierge Edward Souza told us James Rackover was the long lost

18:58son of Jeffrey Rackover. Who recently over the past few years had come back into his life.

19:06Around 2014 James started to come around the building with uh Jeffrey and then he started spending

19:13more time there. After about two years Jeffrey was looking to get James his own place. So he came down

19:21and inquired if there was any apartments available. And then he officially moved in. And then that's when

19:27we learned that he was the long lost son. He had had a relationship with a woman in the late

19:3580s or early

19:3690s that had resulted in a mystery son who had mysteriously appeared at his doorstep. I found it

19:44strange. But as a concierge we don't want to delve too much into people's personal lives. Once James moved

19:51into his own apartment in 4C the party's ramped up considerably. We watched hours and hours of

20:00video just hoping to see Joey appear on one of the screens. While we're still reviewing the video

20:07surveillance the concierge Edward Souza taps me on the shoulder and says that's James Rackover coming in.

20:15So I peek up I see him. As he's walking by he makes a statement good luck getting the video

20:22and keeps walking. So now I was caught by surprise. I'm like wait what? I looked over at Detective

20:30Kiyoshi what the fuck is that? He looks I mean he gives me a single look of what the fuck

20:34is

20:36I was so shocked like he was that cocky and I was like why is he so fucking cocky like

20:39walking

20:40through there with his shoulders back cockier than I had ever seen him. That's when the concierge

20:46says to me you know James had called me yesterday. The night before James had called me and asked me

20:53about the length of time that the cameras record for and I said that's a strange question you know why

21:01why would you ask that? And he told me that uh he had had an argument with his girlfriend and

21:07suspected her of stealing something and he wanted to check the tapes. And I had told him that uh they

21:13record for 24 hours and then we changed the tape. I think maybe James understood that after 24 hours that

21:20that tape was like taped over but uh we wouldn't erase them. We would just change the tape and that

21:26would be the record for that day. So I think his assumption was that the video for the past 24

21:32hours had disappeared when in fact we had access to that video. So that just was throwing off alarms.

21:43So my phone rang and with Detective Castro and he said look I need you to bring me some of

21:50Joey's

21:52clothes. We're gonna get some dogs to see if we can pick up Joey's scent to see where he may

21:56have gone.

21:58I went to Joey's place. I grabbed the towel and some of his other clothes and I remember

22:05I held out a sliver of hope. Maybe. It's not what I think it is.

22:15I was requested to search inside of a garage area of the grandson. I put the collar on my dog

22:20and I'm

22:21like you want to work? He looked at me and his ears went up. I deployed him.

22:26So the dog took himself to the back and all of a sudden he started working. Like I

22:29I know my dog when he works like his tail it just keeps going. And then all of a sudden

22:34I see him

22:34his tail going faster and faster and faster. So me he's on odor.

22:40He went to the four door black Mercedes Benz. He threw his nose right into the trunk area and

22:46he went like he barked. Like real like you know. It came out. He's telling me that he has an

22:54odor of

22:55some sort of human decomposition, blood, anything that indicated the human decomposition.

23:02But you'll have to get a search warrant to go into that vehicle

23:05and check out to see if there actually is evidence or a body inside the trunk.

23:13After the garage the detectives asked me could we do the apartments to see if he indicates on an

23:18apartment. I grabbed the dog. We went up to the fourth floor. I gave him the word search.

23:24He went to the left down the hallway. And then the dog indicated he scratched really hard on the door

23:30jam. We'll see. And then James opens the door. James Rakhover. He's like, fuck you scumbags. You

23:39cops. You come in and you need a warrant. You fuck you. Fuck you. And to me I'm like, this

23:47guy jerk off.

23:49Once I learned that the dog had given an active alert, I knew that he was given an active alert

23:54on blood and something had occurred in there. Meanwhile, other members of the 17th Priest and

24:03Detective Squad from my office began sifting through the garbage from every apartment.

24:09So we put the dog on the bags so that we can identify bags that he gives an alert and

24:15we'll search those

24:20first. And the dog hits upon a bag that had not been opened yet. Inside the bag is like a

24:27comforter

24:27cover. And it also has the name James Rakhover on it. Crime scene starts finding like paper towels

24:36and towels that appear to be soaked in blood. They open up a second bag. Then we find covered in

24:44blood

24:44articles of clothing that belonged to Joey that matched the video surveillance. His gold chain

24:50is in there. His bank card. And they found Joey's ID in that bag as well. Once you find all

24:59of those

25:00things, you need to get that search warrant and you need to go back with the crime scene unit and

25:04you

25:04need to go into that apartment. While Yeoman goes down to get a search warrant, I'm back at the office

25:13doing computer checks on James Rakhover, Lawrence DeLeon and Max Gemma. What we learned about Max

25:21Gemma is he comes from basically privilege. You know, his father was the mayor of Oceanport, New Jersey

25:27at one point. He lives in an apartment with Larry DeLeon. Larry DeLeon, he basically is very much like Max

25:37Gemma. He comes from a good family in New Jersey. They had owned thoroughbred horses. There were some

25:45stories that he had gotten into some fights at certain times. But other than that, he didn't have

25:50what you consider any kind of substantial criminal background.

25:56When we looked into James Rakhover, it turns out he's not James Rakhover. His name is James Bodine,

26:03and he doesn't come from New York. He comes from Florida, where he had numerous arrests and had

26:10done time about a year and a half in jail for burglary down in Florida. We found that he was

26:16given bail,

26:18left Florida and ended up in New York. After digging a little bit more into James Rakhover's background

26:25and his name change, we were able to learn that Jeffrey Rakhover is not the biological father

26:32of James Rakhover. And Jeffrey Rakhover had petitioned to have James Rakhover take his name.

26:46I believe Jeffrey met James at the neighborhood gym close to our building.

26:54They became friends and was introduced over the weeks as first my friend and then my nephew and then my

27:04son.

27:07We didn't know what to make of the relationship between Jeffrey and James, quite frankly. The story

27:13that James was the long-lost son of Jeffrey and somehow they found each other after all those

27:20years and it's not the truth, you know. And you start to look at it and you're like, well,

27:26what is the truth about this relationship that they have?

27:31They did not in any way resemble father and son. The way they would act with each other,

27:38you know, I love my father, but there were ways that they were affectionate with each other that I

27:43wouldn't be with my father.

27:48When you look at everything involved with James, it definitely raises the level of red flags.

27:57James comes from almost nothing, is working a menial job in Florida and in a relatively short time

28:05that James is transformed into James Rackover.

28:09And he's living in this building and he's driving this car and he's at these clubs and there's

28:14restaurants and, you know, you don't want to lose that if you're James.

28:21Everyone else is still going to have their family, they're still going to have the money that their

28:25family's in, but James could lose everything. He's, I think, willing to do anything to maintain

28:31his life and the style he has going on.

28:40While we're waiting for the search warrants, we looked at video from the garage and we know that

28:45James leaves at about 9 45 on Sunday night, the night after the party and takes Jeffrey Rackover's car.

28:55When we did the background check on James, we were able to determine that he had a suspended license.

29:03So that gave us an avenue to be able to place him under arrest for driving without a license.

29:11James, why did you kill him?

29:12What happened in there, James?

29:15But unfortunately, once we placed him under arrest, he immediately invoked his right to counsel.

29:19So we weren't allowed to speak with him. That little glimmer of hope that we had,

29:24that he might tell us where Joey is, we weren't getting it.

29:37So on Tuesday the 15th, we had the search warrants for apartment 4C.

29:43Crime scene comes in. As they start conducting their search, they're processing the scene with

29:49luminol. So under certain light, you can see blood. When a crime scene unit processes the bathroom,

29:57the entire bathroom lights up all over on the walls, in the bathtub, and on the floor.

30:05Indications that there's been a lot of blood cleaned up.

30:10The same thing in the living room. They spray luminol by the sofa, by the floor,

30:15and they find drops of blood. They test it so they see if they can determine who that blood belongs

30:22to.

30:23So the crime scene team had collected steak knives that were inside the dishwasher that had been run

30:30and cleaned. Those kitchen knives were then taken to the lab to see if there was any blood that would

30:37have seeped in to the handle itself.

30:42When you have what you found in the garbage, and then what you have at the scene, you know something

30:51bad has happened to Joey, and we know that he's probably dead. You can't be alive at that point.

30:59And with all of the things that we've found so far, James not telling us anything, and Max

31:04Jim has no information to give us about where Joey may be because he's claiming he was asleep on the

31:10couch. We focus our attention on Larry DeLeon. Being that we already have James in custody,

31:17maybe Larry now wants to get his opportunity to maybe speak first and tell us what happened,

31:23not knowing what James may be saying. And he came in.

31:32So once Larry came in, we asked him if he could shed some light onto why we found so much

31:39blood.

31:40You know, he's keeping the same story that he had said earlier, not knowing where Joey is.

31:47You can accuse someone all you want, or you know, you might be guilty of this, but he's more guilty,

31:53and try and get a statement out of him that way. But Larry didn't want to answer those kinds of

32:00questions. So we tried to appeal more to his human side saying, Joey Cominale's family is concerned

32:06about him and they want to bring him home. And how would you feel if this was somebody in your

32:10family?

32:13Once Larry heard that, he decided to tell us that he could lead us to where Joey is.

32:22Well, he wouldn't tell us how the incident occurred. He gave us an address behind the florist shop

32:30in the town where he used to live in Oceanport, New Jersey, and that's where we used to look.

32:36We caravaned with lights and sirens, and we're doing 80, 90 miles an hour out to this location.

32:47We arrived at this florist shop, and we headed to the open area at the back where

32:55Larry had given a description of where we would be able to locate Joey. We approach over, and the

33:03crime scene detectives begin to move dirt slowly.

33:13And the first thing that I see is a hand, kind of like a half fist. The way you kind

33:22of see in the

33:22movies where it's coming out of the ground. And as they continue to move dirt, you start to see

33:31Joey's face, you start to see his chest, and you can tell that he was charred. So he was lit

33:40on fire.

33:43At this point, we haven't really slept in days. You know, we were exhausted. We were exhausted,

33:50but this is something that we needed to do. We needed to tell the parents before anyone else did.

33:59Myself and Detective Chen get in the car to go from Oceanport, New Jersey,

34:04to Stanford, Connecticut, to go and speak to Pat Cominale and let him know that we located Joey.

34:17No one said a word in that car ride.

34:24You feel the emotion, but you have a job to do.

34:27So you just push it aside, and you keep going.

34:37We were sitting right here. I heard the car doors.

34:48I heard the car doors, and I knew why they were coming.

34:57We walk into the house, and Lisa comes down.

35:01They're hanging on to every word. They're just looking at you.

35:06The two detectives told us they found him.

35:17And it's our worst nightmare.

35:22I've never seen so much hurt in someone's eyes, mother and father.

35:31That type of pain, you never want to wish upon anybody.

35:43It was, uh, we already, I already knew.

35:47But this was the start of the next chapter.

35:52Which was getting justice for Joey.

36:02And that's all I could think about now was making sure these three sons of bitches

36:06get everything that's coming to them.

36:15Medical Examiner in New Jersey conducted the autopsy.

36:17And what he found was that Joey Cominale had 14 stab wounds, some of them post-mortem.

36:24He had broken bones. He had bruising on his hands.

36:28A large cut on his shoulder, which we believe they might have been trying to, uh, dismember him.

36:35And the body had been burned.

36:40I can't make rhyme or reason why this would have happened.

36:43It was inhumane.

36:45It was vile.

36:47It's disgusting to think that they would treat another human being like garbage.

36:59After testing those kitchen knives that were found in the dishwasher,

37:04they were determined to have Joey's blood inside of the handles.

37:11Also, it was determined that the blood in the apartment was Joey's blood.

37:17Fighting the murder weapon coupled with the autopsy report matching to the evidence in the apartment

37:23gave us answers to how he would have been murdered.

37:28But now the key question was, how did they get him out of the building?

37:36We pulled so much video that we had to sift through and we still couldn't see it.

37:44The one video that we couldn't get was a video camera that belonged to the building next door

37:51that coincidentally was corrupted.

37:55Finally, this video gets recovered and it answered a huge part of our question.

38:05As we begin to review that video surveillance, you can see James Rackover park the black Mercedes

38:12in front of the Grand Scythe in front of the Grand Scythe.

38:21Rackover takes the luggage cart, then he leaves the camera frame.

38:28And when he reappears, there's a large buffet bag on the luggage cart, which then he places inside of the

38:36trunk of the black Mercedes.

38:37And if you look out the window of apartment 4C, you look towards 59th Street and the front of the

38:45Grand Scythe.

38:47And when I saw that and I spoke with Yeoman, I went, holy fuck, these guys pushed him out of

38:58the window.

38:59So we wouldn't be suspicious coming out of the front lobby, which was the only exit out of the building.

39:06When you see the video, they're in it together. They're both acting together to take that body and to hide

39:14it.

39:24Did you do it? What happened in the apartment? What happened that night? Did you do it?

39:33Did you stab him?

39:34On May 10th, both Larry and James were arrested for murder in second degree, hindering prosecution and concealment of a

39:42corpse.

39:43James was already in custody for driving on a suspended license, and Jeffrey didn't put any money up for him

39:49to get out.

39:50I do think that at some point he realized he'd made a mistake having this son that was a murderer.

39:59We didn't have any cause to believe at that time that Max Jammer had anything to do with the homicide.

40:04We actually had statements from Larry saying that Max had nothing to do with it.

40:10He was arrested for hindering prosecution.

40:16Ultimately, it was clear to us that he had been involved, nearly trying to obstruct, essentially, the ability for the

40:23police to get evidence.

40:25But I don't think that the senior lawyers or myself were convinced that we could prove Max beyond a reasonable

40:32doubt was involved in the homicide.

40:34Once the murder charges came, it became a finger pointing. He did it, he did it, he did it back

40:40and forth at each other.

40:43We still have to try and determine who did the stabbing.

40:47And we don't know what the role of James was or what the role of Larry was.

40:53You just need the doubt of one person on a jury to not have a conviction.

41:00So while James is waiting for the trial, we got jail calls from James, speaking to a friend of his.

41:08And in these calls, he's very confident he's getting off.

41:13I start trying out in September, so I'm looking at being home around October-ish.

41:17My vet's going to be up there, bro.

41:19Like, my weight's going to hit the street.

41:20They're going to be like, yo, this kid just beat this rocky and he's home.

41:24Oh, my God.

41:26He seems fine, but yeah, I'm going to get off.

41:29I'm going to be out soon and, you know, everything's going to be great.

41:35Towards the end of the investigation and getting ready for trial,

41:42we were able to locate a witness, and his name was Louis Ruggiero.

41:47He was a friend of James Rackover.

41:52Louis Ruggiero states that on the day that we're searching the building, he was at the gym.

41:57And that James Rackover came up to him and told him that he really needs to speak to him.

42:02He's got to tell him something that happened.

42:04Louis tells us the story that James had told him, which was that on the day of the murder,

42:09while they're sitting there in the apartment, Larry had a dispute with this guy.

42:17Turns out to be Joey.

42:19And Larry gets so upset, he punches Joey and knocks him to the ground, knocks him out.

42:26James then says, I'm not going back to jail.

42:30And gets a knife from the kitchen and stabs Joey to death.

42:36So in this statement that he tells Louis, he's admitting he's the one that actually kills him.

42:44And another amazing statement that he makes is, Joey's still in the apartment.

42:48And after that, he ordered pancakes and ate them without any problems.

42:52And then they took the body down in New Jersey and they dumped it.

42:56The evidence showed that their actions were intentional.

43:00That attack resulted in Joey's death.

43:02Even if they played different roles, two people can be responsible for the death of one person.

43:08And ultimately, James went to trial first.

43:23The trial for James Rack over started in Manhattan courts.

43:29Pat was there every day and he would fill the whole courtroom with family and friends.

43:37It was all of us, you know, all the fraternity brothers, his friends from home, colleagues, work, people would come

43:43and support Joey.

43:47Support we got from a lot of individuals was just incredible.

43:52Nobody on James Rack oversight, which spoke volumes.

44:01Ultimately, after a lengthy trial involving James, the jury found him guilty of second-degree murder or intentional murder.

44:09I remember to this day, Pat, I had to hold him down.

44:13Me and my lieutenant are holding each arm because he sprung up with like this

44:22joy that it's finally over and they're going to pay for what they did to his son.

44:29And I was very, very happy for him, very happy for him.

44:34When I saw James, all I could think about was, I hope your nightmare is just starting.

44:41Because I got to take mine for a lot longer than him.

44:50James Rack over was sentenced to 28 years, which he's still serving.

44:59We were glad with the outcome and we just wanted it, you know, to be over.

45:05I want to thank the Manhattan DA's office for doing an incredible job.

45:10The NYPD, who worked around the clock.

45:14And I appreciate everybody's support.

45:16My family, friend.

45:22I think Larry could see that his odds of conviction were going to be very, very high.

45:30Larry chose to plead guilty as opposed to going to trial.

45:35He ended up taking a plea deal to murder two for 23 years.

45:41February 2019, Max Gemma pleads guilty to hindering prosecution.

45:47And he receives a sentence of six months of jail.

45:51I think all the papers all said he got a sweetheart deal.

45:56And I actually agree with him.

45:58I don't know why.

46:00I don't know why, but he's got to live with himself.

46:06I think Max Gemma definitely has more information about what happened in that apartment.

46:22Every detective has a case in a lifetime.

46:27In the 19 years that I've been in the police department, this case has been the case for me.

46:34Just learning about Joey and how much he was loved by all his friends and family.

46:39Pat misses Joey every single day like if it was the first day that it happened.

46:46And he has this love for Joey that I can relate to.

46:53Because when he speaks about Joey and his daughter, and it's like they're his world.

47:02And that's who my kids are to me.

47:05We think about him every day, and we just try to, you know, keep his memory alive and tell my

47:17grandson all the time, this is Uncle Joey.

47:22His friends started getting a tattoo with number nine.

47:29And that was his number.

47:31And the irony is, I always said to him, I'll pay for your college under two conditions.

47:38You graduate number one in four years and you never get any ink.

47:43And he didn't get his tattoo, but I got his tattoo.

47:48I thought it'd be a great way to just be with him every day.

47:54Which I am.

48:07The phone rang.

48:09Jeff says, is Irene with you?

48:11He said, she has been missing since 12 o'clock.

48:14Suddenly, everybody was at a loss that the lady of the home is gone.

48:20Irene Silverman was an 82-year-old woman that was as sharp as a tack.

48:25She was a socialite.

48:26And if she liked you, you were part of her family.

48:29We had information that our mother and son had Irene Silverman's identification.

48:35So we do a background check.

48:36You couldn't believe the horrific things that they did.

48:39We don't know where she is.

48:40We're innocent and have just given our rights.

48:43We will prove it.

48:44It certainly didn't appear to be a mother-son relationship.

48:47They're holding hands.

48:49Staring into each other's eyes.

48:51Are you fucking kidding me?

48:53I interviewed the son.

48:55And before I know it, he's across my neck.

48:59I could feel his heart pounding.

49:01He said to me, this is a hostage situation.

49:05You may think you know me, but you do not.

49:35I could feel bad about you or not.

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