Tartaglione lawyer attacks murder evidence. Prosecutors say guilty verdict is a slam dunk
WHITE PLAINS - Nicholas Tartaglione's attorney argued to a federal jury Wednesday that three government cooperators lied and set up the former police offer in the murder of four immigrants, a defense lambasted as fiction by the prosecutors.
Tartaglione's trial has entered the final phase as attorneys made closing statements and the jury begins deliberations at the U. S. District Courthouse. He is charged with drug-trafficking conspiracy, and murder and kidnapping in furtherance of the conspiracy, accused in the killings of Martin Luna, his nephew Miguel Luna, his niece's husband Urbano Santiago, and family friend Hector Gutierrez.
All four disappeared on April 11, 2016, after Luna was lured to the Likquid Lounge, a bar in Chester owned by Tartaglione's brother, over a drug debt and brought the others with him.
The prosecution contends Tartaglione's two enforcers, bodybuilder and school security guard Joseph Biggs and another ex-cop and strongman competitor Gerard Benderoth, restrained the men at gunpoint. They say Tartaglione then strangled Martin Luna with a zip tie and his body and the three other men were brought to Tartaglione's property in Mount Hope, where Biggs, Tartaglione, and Benderoth each shot one of the men in the back of the head.
Defense case: Tartaglione was the 'perfect fall guy' in quadruple homicide, ex-cop's defense says
Defense attacks prosecution witnesses and case
Defense Attorney Bruce Barket raised the question of Biggs, Jason Sullivan, and Marcus Cruz conspiring to frame Tartaglione to get a lesser sentence — possibly time served — for their roles in the murders and cocaine dealing conspiracy.
He attempted to punch holes in the prosecution's case, telling jurors not to blindly accept the testimony of witnesses and other evidence offered by prosecutors.
Barket argued the investigation targeted Tartaglione, a steroid dealer, and then went out to prove he killed and took part in a cocaine conspiracy. He said the three cooperators provided the testimony prosecutors wanted in their efforts to not get a life sentence.
Barket said the bodies dug up on Tartaglione's property showed the conspiracists focused on him.
He said Biggs killed Luna, alleging the bodybuilder from Nanuet liked strangling people.
"Nick had nothing to do with a cocaine conspiracy," Barket said. "He didn't kill Luna. He didn't participate in any of the other murders.
"The witnesses have been molded," Barket said, adding he wasn't accusing the prosecutors and investigators of framing Tartaglione. He told the jurors that they could disregard a witness's entire testimony if the jurors felt lies were told.
Barket said people get falsely convicted because "good people, trusting people want to believe the government does the right thing. They accept a script, a version of events from the government."
Prosecutor Maurene Comey dismissed Barket's closing arguments. She told the jurors the case is open and shut and backed by powerful evidence of Tartaglione's guilt. She said he masterminded the murders and cocaine dealing with his steroid sales.
"Three witnesses told you how the defendant took part in the kidnapping conspiracy, and four murders," she said. "This evidence is devastating because it's the truth — Nicholas Tartaglione is guilty."
She said Barket cherry-picked text messages and other evidence without providing the context. She said the idea that Cruz masterminded the drug conspiracy is absurd, saying he's a farmhand with a second-grade education.
Comey said the three men weren't scripted and their initial interviews were recorded. She said defense attorneys and prosecutors were present. She said Tartaglione would have to be the most unlucky since all the evidence pointed to him.
"The defendant thought he could get away with murder," she said. "In his mind, who is going to miss four Mexicans?"
She said good police officers and investigators followed up leads and dismissed others as suspects until the right people were found.
She said that Barket wrongly described the potential sentence for the cooperators. She told the jurors that the judge alone determines their sentence and the prosecution would write a letter on their behalf if they told the truth. She said even if Tartaglione is acquitted, the cooperators could still be eligible for a lesser sentence.
Tartaglione worked most of his career in the Briarcliff Manor Police Department but also had shorter stints in Mount Vernon, Yonkers, and Pawling. He had retired on a disability in 2008 and augmented his $65,000 annual pension by selling cars and steroids and running an animal rescue operation.
Tartaglione worked most of his career in the Briarcliff Manor Police Department but also had shorter stints in Mount Vernon, Yonkers, and Pawling. He had retired on a disability in 2008 and augmented his $65,000 annual pension by selling cars and steroids and running an animal rescue operation.
According to prosecutors, the trafficking conspiracy was hatched in June 2015 on Tartaglione's rented property on Old Mountain Road in Mount Hope. Luna was visiting his friend Cruz, a farmhand on the ranch, and brought along his employer, Jason Sullivan, who owned a construction company. Tartaglione had begun growing marijuana on his property but Luna suggested he could get access to cocaine and Tartaglione was interested.
Luna made arrangements to buy cocaine in Texas and have it sold in Florida, where Sullivan had moved by the end of the year. In December, the plan went into effect with Tartaglione giving Cruz $200,000 to give to Luna as the initial investment. At the time, Tartaglione was hoping to buy the Mount Hope property.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jason Swergold used phone and hotel records and testimony from Cruz and Sullivan to detail the trafficking plan. Tartaglione's brother, Michael, drove the money to Texas and the drugs to Florida once Luna had picked them up. In Florida, the cocaine was kept at Sullivan's home and sold by Santiago one kilo at a time in late December and early July.
Swergold on Tuesday called the killings "heinous acts" and said not even the surprise arrival of the three other men could shake Tartaglione from his fury against Martin Luna.
"Rather than abandon the plan, he went forward," Swergold said. "Rather than let them go, he decided they'd all die."
Swergold aimed the defense contention that Sullivan's financial problems and proximity to the drugs made him the more likely ringleader of the conspiracy. He said there was a reason Tartaglione was never in Florida and never handled the drugs.
"The defendant was at the top of the operation," the prosecutor said. "He's not in the weeds; he's not doing the day-to-day."
When all seven kilos were sold it was decided Luna would use the proceeds to get more cocaine and the trip to Texas was repeated. But he reported on the night of Jan. 17, 2016, that when he turned the money over, his contact left and never returned with the drugs.
Tartaglione initially believed Luna's account, Swergold said, and tried to help him recover the money. But when Luna cut off communication, Tartaglione sent two hulking enforcers, bodybuilder and school security guard Joseph Biggs and ex-cop and strongman competitor Gerard Benderoth, to find him.
They were unable to but Tartaglione eventually got Sullivan's help in luring Luna to the bar. Sullivan told him there was a roofing estimate to be done there.
When the men got to the bar, they were restrained by Biggs and Benderoth, and Tartaglione arrived and confronted Martin Luna where he was tied up in the bathroom. Biggs said he heard Luna choking and soon looked in to see his body lying on the ground. He said Tartaglione got a tarp from his car to wrap the body and drove it to the Mount Hope property and he and Benderoth drove the three others there.
Swergold led jurors through surveillance video purporting to show the men arriving at the bar with Tartaglione showing up a short time later. Later the video showed men appearing to put a large object into Tartaglione's car and him driving away. It also showed Benderoth's car going to the rear of the property, to pick up Biggs and the three captives, and then leaving the area moments later.
Cell phone records and cell site location data also showed the conspirators' phones making their way to the Mount Hope property and no phone communication between Tartaglione, Biggs, and Benderoth when they were all purportedly at the bar together.
Biggs testified that the three men, still bound by duct tape, were forced to kneel on the ground. He said he shot one of the men after Benderoth threatened him, gave the gun to Tartaglione, and heard two more shots as he turned away. Prosecutors contend that both Tartaglione and Benderoth shot the remaining captives because Biggs said it was Benderoth who held the gun when he turned back a moment later.
Tartaglione and Biggs dug a hole for the bodies and filled it in partially and Cruz helped Tartaglione finish filling the hole with dirt the next day.
Swergold said Tartaglione figured no one would look for them. But no matter how much dirt he threw in the hole to cover their bodies, the prosecutor said, "the defendant could not bury the memory of these four men and he also couldn't bury the truth about what he had done."
Tartaglione was arrested on Dec. 19, 2016, and the bodies were unearthed the following day after Cruz led state police investigators and FBI agents to the clearing on the mountainside.
Swergold said it was a stroke of luck that Biggs, Benderoth, and Cruz could not find the victims' car when they looked for it in the parking lot after the killings. Tartaglione had hoped to move it as far as possible from the bar. But when it was found days later when a waitress reported it seemingly abandoned to police, it centered the investigation into the missing men in Chester.
When the bar was searched, there was one spot of blood recovered from a baseboard. Testing revealed it contained Martin Luna's DNA.
Barket told the jurors that the DNA could have been contaminated.
Biggs, Sullivan, and Cruz have all pleaded guilty in the case and cooperated with the prosecution in hopes of leniency from a sentence of life in prison. Swergold acknowledged each had done bad things, some "truly horrible", but it didn't mean they weren't telling the truth.
And if law enforcement was framing Tartaglione as the defense contends, Swergold said, they could have stopped the investigation once he was arrested instead of rounding up the others and charging them as well.
Steve Lieberman covers government, breaking news, courts, police, and investigations. Reach him at slieberm@lohud.com. Twitter: @lohudlegal.
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This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Tartaglione quadruple murder trial to jury after closing arguments
