
BALLSTON SPA – The operator of a Johnstown sub store regarded Allyzibeth Lamont as a “ringleader” among the disgruntled personnel, organized with a supervisor to conquer her to death, and then created comprehensive initiatives to cover up the criminal offense, a prosecutor charged in opening statements Wednesday in Georgios Kakavelos’ trial for first-diploma murder.
“Defendant took good steps to hide his act, but what he didn’t assume was his confidante, his proper-hand male, coming ahead,” Assistant District Lawyer Alan Poremba told the Saratoga County Courtroom jury, “He showed [police] where all the evidence was hidden.”
The former deli supervisor, James A. Duffy, 35, of Johnstown, has pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder, and is anticipated to be a essential prosecution witness from Kakavelos, testimony he will give in exchange for obtaining an 18-year-to-daily life jail sentence.
In his opening assertion, Kakavelos’ protection legal professional, Kevin K. O’Brien of Albany, consistently attacked Duffy, contacting him an alcoholic and drug consumer who killed Lamont for uncertain explanations but devoid of Kakavelos’ information, and then threatened Kakavelos’ family members if the deli proprietor didn’t help him in masking up the crime.
“This guy is violent. He is emotional. He hates gals, and he is the government’s star witness,” O’Brien informed jurors. “He is everything Mr. Kakavelos is not.”
The trial is taking position a yr-and-a-half right after the infamous killing of Lamont, which involved crime scenes in both Fulton and Saratoga counties.
The bare and mud-caked entire body of Lamont, who was 22 when she was killed, was observed on Oct. 31, 2019, in a shallow grave in a wooded marshy spot of the southbound Northway Exit 13 accessibility ramp in Malta. Duffy led police to the overall body. He and Kakavelos have been then accused of killing her, making use of a baseball bat and small sledgehammer.
The killing took put at the Neighborhood No. 9 Smokehouse and Substation on Route 30A in Johnstown, the small business wherever all 3 labored, on Oct. 28, a few times right before the system was uncovered, policed say.
Kakavelos, 52, of Malta, faces a first-diploma murder charge for the reason that he is accused of choosing Duffy to commit the murder. The 11-depend indictment also billed him with concealing a human corpse and intensive proof tampering. If convicted of the top murder rely, Kakavelos could be sentenced to daily life in jail without having parole. He has been in jail considering the fact that the two he and Duffy were being arrested shortly just after the physique was identified.
Poremba instructed jurors that Kakavelos paid Duffy to destroy Lamont, but then aided in the killing and in initiatives above numerous days to dispose of the system and other proof. In a assertion to police anticipated to be entered at demo, Duffy has explained he obtained three payments around a number of times totaling $1,300.
“They brutally beat Allyzibeth Lamont to death with a baseball bat and one particular-hand sledge hammer,” Poremba informed the jury. “They took quite a few steps to toss law enforcement off their tracks. They remaining many purple herrings.”
The prosecution reported Lamont was killed soon after closing time on Oct. 28, 2019, since Kakavelos was in monetary trouble. He was having to pay employees underneath the table and Lamont was speaking up and threatening to convey to the condition Division of Labor about the performing ailments. Lamont, known as “Ally,” had worked at the sub store considerably less than a 12 months, but was inexplicably demoted and replaced by Duffy, Poremba said.
“She was assertive and spoke up for herself and other staff,” he claimed.
In the speedy aftermath of the killing, Kakavelos went to the Walmart in Gloversville to buy bleach, cleaning soap and trash baggage to clear up the criminal offense scene, Poremba stated. That similar night, Duffy and Kakavelos allegedly drove to Exit 13 in Kakavelos’ Volkswagen Passat and dragged the human body into the woods. Poremba said they returned the next evening to strip the system of bloody clothing, dump fertilizer on it to velocity decomposition, put concrete pavers on it, and cover it with leaves and branches.
The baseball bat, luggage of bloody outfits and other proof was still left at a location on Rowland Road in Milton, Poremba mentioned, and then later moved to another location on remote Dean Lung Road in Galway. On Oct. 30, the prosecutor said, Kakavelos also purchased customized-fitted plywood at a retail store in Glenmont and put it over his car’s trunk base, even though also finding the inside cleaned and air freshened.
In response, O’Brien reported the government’s overall circumstance turns on the reliability of Duffy, who he said applied medicines and drank liquor on his have and with Lamont in the weeks prior to the killing. “Without James Duffy and his self-serving statements, they would have very little,” he stated.
O’Brien acknowledged Kakavelos experienced filed for personal bankruptcy, paid out staff members off the guides and had prevented taxes, but reported he was a secure spouse and children man who gave way too considerably obligation to Duffy since he had a just one-month-aged child at residence. “He would not get rid of a younger woman so she wouldn’t converse to the Labor Division,” O’Brien claimed.
O’Brien strongly implied that Kakavelos will testify in his personal protection. Defendants are less than no obligation to testify.
“Georgios Kakavelos is going to be shown to be harmless, and another target in this criminal offense,” O’Brien mentioned.
There have been about two hours of testimony following the opening statements. 1 of the initial witnesses was Jennie Younger of Gloversville, who described herself as Lamont’s most effective pal, with whom she from time to time lived. It was Younger who noted Lamont lacking to Gloversville law enforcement late Tuesday, just about a day after the killing is alleged to have occurred.
“She was pretty outgoing, pretty generous, she did not just take crap from nobody,” Young testified.
The demo is being held under specific problems simply because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with jurors distribute in the course of the courtroom and observation by reporters and the general public minimal to video monitoring. The Saratoga Springs Town Heart was utilized for jury range Monday and Tuesday because of its means to space out a big number of people today, and in the Ballston Spa courtroom, the 12 jurors and 4 alternates.
Jurors, attorneys, witnesses and court docket staff are all essential to dress in face masks or deal with shields even though in the courtroom. The witness chair and stand are being sanitized involving every single witness.
The demo is envisioned to very last four to six weeks, according to Saratoga County Court docket Decide James A. Murphy III, who is presiding. Court is scheduled to resume this early morning.
Extra from The Everyday Gazette:
Types: Fulton Montgomery Schoharie, Information, Saratoga County
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