Lured by sex, killed for cash. How a Queens hooker claimed four victims in summer killing spree

The men arrived at the Queens motels as customers, and departed as corpses.

The doomed victims died one after another across six weeks in the summer of 2019, lured to their demise with promises of sex and drugs from a pink-haired prostitute who left “a trail of bodies in her wake” after coming to New York from Canada, prosecutors said.

Homicidal hooker Angelina Barini cried inside a Brooklyn Federal Court hearing as she was sentenced last week to 30 years in prison for peddling her victims lethal fentanyl-laced drugs — even assuring one it was only cocaine.

Court papers showed the callous crook robbed three of the dead men and lifted a credit card from the fourth.

Her final victim was the most prominent: Head chef Andrea Zamperoni at Cipriani Dolci, the renowned Venetian restaurant inside Midtown’s Grand Central Terminal.

The 33-year-old chef, killed when Barini slipped him a lethal dose of a date-rape drug on Aug. 18, 2019, was found three days later. Law enforcement officers arrived at the motel room to see his bare foot poking out of a garbage can stuffed with bed linens.

Barini, 43, shared a room with the body at the seedy Kamway Lodge in Elmhurst as she and a male co-conspirator tried in vain to surreptitiously dispose of the chef’s remains — with the prostitute even calling a friend with requests for a hacksaw and a hand truck, court papers revealed.

Investigators also recovered a power saw, glass pipes for smoking narcotics and the victim’s American Express card, court documents said. Callous co-defendant Leslie Lescano, her ex-boyfriend, used the credit card to shop at a store after the killing, authorities said.

Video evidence showed Barini and her victim entering the hotel just before 5 a.m. on Aug. 18, with Zamperoni never re-emerging.

“Andrea was a responsible, good-hearted, kind and very hard-working individual who will be deeply missed by all of us,” the restaurant said in a statement, noting the victim’s brother was “overcome with grief.”

Barini, christened at birth as Jennifer Gregory, pleaded guilty last August at a hearing where the defendant acknowledged dropping out of school after eighth grade and taking medication for mental illness.

Families of the victims were hardly swayed by her tales of woe.

“This crime destroyed the life of our family,” said one of the victim’s relatives in a court filing. “Unfortunately, nothing will be the same as before.”

Another family member, in a written statement calling for a stiff sentence, described Barini and Lescano as “these MONSTERS.”

The killing spree began on the Fourth of July, authorities said, when Barini provided a lethal dose of dope to a man found dead inside an Astoria motel around 11 a.m. Court papers said Barini tried to foist blame for the overdose on a second woman in the room.

The victim’s cell phone and wallet were gone by the time police arrived, police said.

It was a week later when Barini met a potential client for sex inside an Elmhurst motel, with the prostitute giving Jean-Alessander Silvero, 28, a lethal dose of fentanyl that she passed off as cocaine. The pair checked in around 1:20 a.m. on July 11, and she was seen on video leaving alone just 42 minutes later.

The customer’s body was found that afternoon, with Barini later admitting she stole his cellphone.

“The drugs I gave him caused his death,” she eventually confessed through tears. “Excuse me, I’m sorry.”

On Aug. 5, as detailed in court documents, Barini met another sex client in a Kew Gardens motel before the pair returned to his home. Once there, the man was given a fatal dose of drugs before the hooker stole his cellphone and fled, cops said.

She admitted her crimes with four guilty pleas, sobbing when asked to acknowledge the horrific details. Barini wept again at the sentencing last Tuesday, where she wore a blue prison jumpsuit as the decades-long sentence was imposed.

“There is no level of disadvantage of being raised that can mitigate what you did here … drug addiction or no drug addiction, something has to kick in,” said Brooklyn Federal Judge Brian Cogan in imposing the sentence.

The term left Barini with lots of time to go with the blood on her hands. Court documents indicated that during her three years awaiting her day in court, she developed her skills in everything from crocheting to chess to arts and crafts.

She’s also hopeful of doing her time at the federal prison in Waseka, a low-security Minnesota facility for women.

“The facility is closer to the defendant’s family in Canada than many of those housing female inmates, and has various programs, including one involving dog training, in which she would like to participate,” her federal defender wrote in court papers last week.