Two weeks to the day after East Hampton Town’s first murder in a decade, Joseph A. Grippo, a 47-year-old with a criminal record, was arrested last Thursday in the killing of Robert Casado in Montauk’s Kirk Park.
Mr. Grippo lured Mr. Casado to the park, where he killed him with a pickax, all because they had the same love interest, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini said outside East Hampton Town Justice Court, where Mr. Grippo had been arraigned on a second-degree murder on Friday.
A grand jury indicted him hours later, according to online records. The indictment will be unsealed and he will be arraigned before Suffolk County Criminal Court Justice Richard Ambro in Riverhead tomorrow.
“The victim allegedly had a relationship — a romantic relationship — with the defendant’s significant other that caused the defendant to be upset,” Mr. Sini said. “The defendant lured the victim to an area, a park in Montauk, where he stabbed and beat the victim in the face and head.”
Mr. Casado, 38, was known to walk to work through the park to get to his job at Mickey’s Carting depot on North Shore Road.
The felony complaint filed in court said Mr. Casado had been bludgeoned with the pickax and stabbed with a knife on June 6 at about 7:10 a.m. The D.A.’s office declined to clarify further. Mr. Sini would not comment Friday on whether the murder weapon, or weapons as the case may be, had been recovered.
People walking in the park that morning found Mr. Casado on a path that runs between Main Street and Second House Road and called 911 just before 7:30. The trail is not visible from the street. He was pronounced dead at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. It is the first murder in Montauk in 22 years.
Suffolk County police homicide squad detectives, who were called in to investigate, only said at the time that Mr. Casado had a severe head injury and that they were awaiting the medical examiner’s report to determine what had been used to kill him.
“The cause of death was blunt force trauma and stab wounds to the face and neck,” Mr. Sini said Friday.
Mr. Grippo was arrested in his car at the intersection of Old Montauk Highway and Montauk Highway last Thursday at 3:47 p.m., the D.A.’s office said.
Town Justice Lisa R. Rana ordered him held without bail because he stands charged with an A felony. Mr. Grippo is being held at the Suffolk County jail in Riverside.
His court-appointed attorney, Dan Russo, entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf last Thursday. Mr. Russo asked Justice Rana to note in his file that Mr. Grippo is in need of medical attention, as he had surgery on June 18 and needed to have staples removed. He did not offer any more information about the surgery.
“All I know is it’s an accusation,” Mr. Russo said outside of court. “We’re going to defend it.”
Mr. Grippo has a lengthy criminal record, including a conviction for armed robbery in another jurisdiction in 1998, for which he served 15 years in prison, according to Kerriann Kelly, the homicide bureau chief with the Suffolk County district attorney’s office. He also served time for burglary and has several misdemeanor convictions, Ms. Kelly said.
He has lived at his mother’s house on Old Montauk Highway for about two years.
Ms. Kelly said little in court, but told the justice that her office was presenting the case to a grand jury on Friday morning. She offered to hold the proceeding open if Mr. Grippo wished to testify, but Mr. Russo said his client would not be testifying.
Mr. Casado’s father, Benny Garces, his brothers, and several friends sat in court quietly as Mr. Grippo was arraigned on Friday. Many of them wore buttons with a picture of Mr. Casado’s face. His father was overcome with emotion as he left the courtroom and leaned on his family and a friend for support. A court officer brought him a chair and offered to call for an ambulance, which he declined. He was helped to his car.
From the start, detectives said they did not believe it was a random attack. Mr. Casado’s friends were not surprised Mr. Grippo had been charged.
“I knew it the whole time,” said Edgar Ramirez, who described Mr. Casado, known as Panda, as his best friend. “I used to go to his house and party with him,” Mr. Ramirez said, adding that he stopped hanging out with him because “he was acting crazy.”
Mr. Casado and Mr. Grippo had been friends, too, but they had had a fight over the woman, he said. Two months ago, Mr. Casado and Mr. Grippo fought after the woman said Mr. Grippo kicked down a door at a room she had rented at a Montauk motel. Mr. Ramirez did not know which motel.
“On behalf of the E.H.T.P.D., we would like to express our appreciation and thanks to the Suffolk homicide squad, crime scene investigation unit, and the medical examiner’s office for their outstanding work on this tragic case,” Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo said last week. “We hope the arrest begins to bring some closure for the family and friends of the victim, while also giving some relief to the Montauk community. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family during this difficult time.”
With Reporting by Cecelia Scheuer