Adrienne Shelly

[Wol]

niddlemiddle said:

Wow, can you imagine being punched so hard it kills you? I hope she died instantly, or to think she knew she was being dragged... :: Shudder::

Now her child won't know her mom! To think, one day her dad will have to tell her how her mom died.
Thank god they know it's not suicide.

There appears to be a question as to how she died. It is possible that he only knocked her out, thought that he killed her, then staged the suicide and she might actually have been killed by strangulation when he rigged up the bed sheet. There have been two autopsies - one by the ME, and one by a private ME hired by the family, performed in the presence of two NYPD detectives. There is also some question about whether or not she was dragged up the stairs. Some reports say he followed her into the apartment she was using as an office and hit her there, rather than down in the apartment that was being renovated where she came to check on the noise.

As niddlemiddle rightly points out, none of this really matters. Until we can bring people back from the dead and effect some kind of swap ("Here's the piece of garbage with anger management issues, can we have Adrienne back now?") there really is no such thing as justice.

[Shanmac]

My God, that poor woman, and her poor family. What a waste of flesh that guy is -- I hope he gets the maximum. Attacking a tiny woman over a noise complaint? Staging a suicide? He doesn't deserve any mercy from the court, although I'm not a fan of the death penalty.

I'm not familiar with her work, but I'm so glad they found out what really happened. It's a tragedy, but at least her family won't go on believing she ended her own life.

[india7]

wol said:

There is also some question about whether or not she was dragged up the stairs. Some reports say he followed her into the apartment she was using as an office and hit her there, rather than down in the apartment that was being renovated where she came to check on the noise.

From what I'd heard on the NY news stations, she went downstairs, argued with him about keeping the noise down, he hit her (and either killed her or knocked her out), then he dragged her upstairs and hung her. I didn't hear anything about him following her - I could be wrong on what I've heard, though.

[rarepear]

india7 said:

wol said:

There is also some question about whether or not she was dragged up the stairs. Some reports say he followed her into the apartment she was using as an office and hit her there, rather than down in the apartment that was being renovated where she came to check on the noise.

From what I'd heard on the NY news stations, she went downstairs, argued with him about keeping the noise down, he hit her (and either killed her or knocked her out), then he dragged her upstairs and hung her. I didn't hear anything about him following her - I could be wrong on what I've heard, though.

I'm confused about what happened, too; some reports say she was renovating her office and that he was the last person seen to enter her apartment, while others (most) indicate he was a worker from the apartment downstairs and that she approached him there about the noise.

What interests me is that he so easily (and quickly) thought of staging the suicide. Luckily he was dumb enough to make mistakes but where did the idea come from? Are the perps starting to get their ideas from Law & Order style TV shows?

[Coffeecakes]

Trying to pass off a murder as a suicide is the oldest trick in the book. Glad that this piece of shit was caught. Now hopefully his ass will get deported. Are the jails in Ecuador hell? If they aren't, keep him here so he can get the death penalty.

[Deleted]

I don't even live in NY and make any noise complaints to the apartment manager for this very reason. You never what people will do.

[Wol]

If convicted, he will serve his time here and then be deported upon his release. Since he committed no crime in Ecuador he will be a free man once there.

According to the NY Times, she was killed in her own apartment and not dragged up the stairs, and it was the strangulation from the bed sheet and not the blows to her face that killed her. So if he hadn't done his little Law and Order maneuver, she might still be alive.

The other two men who shared his apartment, both illegals, have packed up and left. Clearly it is more important to them to save their own asses than help the justice system. The INS is investigating the owner of the construction company for hiring undocumented workers.

I wonder if mental instability will come into play for the defense. Coming into this country illegally is dangerous as hell. Who would risk their lives to come here and make a better life for themselves, then three months later blow it all by killing someone? What a sick little twist.

[venusdiva429]

It's awful to think that she was still alive, then died so needlessly.

Getting to the bottom of this, though, will affect what he's charged with. If he hit her and she died from the blow, that's probably manslaughter, and I can bet that some greasy attorney will try to paint him as being insane. Now, if she wasn't dead and was hanged to death, that would be premeditated murder, probably first or second degree.

At any rate, I hope the bastard rots. Doesn't matter if it's in Rikers or in a state-supplied coffin.

[Binky]

What interests me is that he so easily (and quickly) thought of staging the suicide. Luckily he was dumb enough to make mistakes but where did the idea come from? Are the perps starting to get their ideas from Law & Order style TV shows?

Whaddya want to bet we see an 'inspired by' episode of L&O or CSI?

If he hadn't done the suicide trick (and does he not watch CSI - footprints are all over that!) he probably would have tried to dispose of her body in some other way. This way he fucked up and got caught. And least her family knows what happened, now, senseless as it was. Poor woman. It's probable she was unconscious after the punch and never knew what was happening.

[india7]

Well, from what I heard with regard to the footprint - the investigators totally disregarded it at first! They thought it was someone from their side, one of the crime scene investigators, who got sloppy. It was only after the police grilled her husband for five hours (which I can understand - in cases like this, they start with the person's family and inner circle and then spread out) that he put some real pressure on them to go back and look at the crime scene again, because he insisted she'd have never committed suicide. Only then, because he kept bugging the cops, did they go back, look at the footprint in the tub, and then compare it with footprints in the construction dust of the apartment being renovated downstairs. Good thing the husband was insistent, or this jerk off would be halfway to Ecuador by now!