Leonia man faces 30 years in prison after admitting to girlfriend's fatal stabbing
A Leonia man could spend up to 30 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of his girlfriend in March 2022.
Nile Diakos appeared before Bergen County Superior Court Judge Susan Steele on Monday, pleading guilty to the first-degree murder of 35-year-old Alicia Arnone.
Arnone was found stabbed in her head and neck at her Grand Avenue apartment in Leonia on March 26, 2022 by police. She was found at the top of her apartment steps in a pool of blood with a knife near her head.
Diakos was the one who had called the police and met them at the door with Arnone's daughter, telling them she was dead inside.
During the plea hearing, Diakos admitted to stabbing Arnone multiple times, knowing it would likely kill her. In exchange for the guilty plea, the state will drop the weapons and hindering apprehension charges against Diakos.
The state is recommending Diakos be sentenced to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole. His sentencing is scheduled for May 22 at 1:30 p.m.
Other pending criminal charges out of Passaic County, including stalking and a certain persons not to have a weapon charge, are expected to add more time to the proposed 30-year sentence from Bergen County.
Arnone's ex-boyfriend, Andrae Daniels of Lodi, was initially arrested in her death but charges were dropped not long after when Arnone's daughter recanted her eyewitness statement. The juvenile had originally said she had seen her mother tied to a chair and Daniels standing next to her, giving her a menacing look.
Police also received phone recordings of Diakos' confession, which cast doubt on eyewitness statements.
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Diakos appeared before Steele last April for a pretrial motion to discuss an alleged confession and detention hearing. Bergen County Prosecutor Suzanne Cevasco said Diakos had admitted to a friend, who recorded the conversation, to stabbing Arnone and fleeing when he heard her daughter coming and then circled around the apartment to make it look like he had just gotten there.
Cevasco also read portions of a conversation between Diakos and an ex-girlfriend who had a restraining order against him. He professed his love for her and said Arnone "did [him] dirty" but didn't press charges the way she had. Diakos told his ex-girlfriend he would turn himself in for killing Arnone and he would "forever be out of [her] life" and she could turn him in before he turned himself in.
His attorney, Kathleen Theurer, had tried to argue that her client's confession was not necessarily a confession but "the ramblings of someone who is suffering."
During the motion hearing, Theurer said Diakos suffered from major depression, schizophrenia and substance abuse problems. She also argued that Arnone's daughter previously identified Daniels as her mother's killer and recanted her statement the day Diakos was charged and asked a series of leading yes or no questions.
While sympathetic to Diakos' mental health struggles, Steele was concerned about them and the potential dangers and weighed the recorded statements and text messages to be a significant factor in her order for detainment.
This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Leonia man confesses to fatally stabbing girlfriend in 2022
