GUILTY NY - Four people shot to death in Medford pharmacy robbery, 19 June 2011

[Blondie in Spokane]

DA: NY Shootings Suspect Staked out Pharmacy

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13963832&page=2

 

[joe jones]

will be suprised if she does not get more charges,

 

[Blondie in Spokane]

Drug 'killer' a soda jerk - Sick alibi & chilling slay details emerge

"With cold calculation, David Laffer allegedly gunned down four innocent people in a Long Island pharmacy, then shaved off the beard he'd darkened with mascara, changed his clothes and rushed to a nearby convenience store to create an alibi that he was buying a soft drink."





Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drug_killer_soda_jerk_lhHZSZidMYBUkNISNn38hM#ixzz1Qt6ape1n



(The details of these killings are truly chilling and hard to read.)

 

[Reader]

will be suprised if she does not get more charges,

Agree she should have more charges!

She helped plan, drove him there and away, provided the prescription he took with him, and didn't say anything after she knew what happened...I guess she was enjoying her pills so much she just forgot how he got them....

Cold, cold, cold people...

 

[Reader]

Drug 'killer' a soda jerk - Sick alibi & chilling slay details emerge

"With cold calculation, David Laffer allegedly gunned down four innocent people in a Long Island pharmacy, then shaved off the beard he'd darkened with mascara, changed his clothes and rushed to a nearby convenience store to create an alibi that he was buying a soft drink."





Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drug_killer_soda_jerk_lhHZSZidMYBUkNISNn38hM#ixzz1Qt6ape1n



(The details of these killings are truly chilling and hard to read.)

Thank you for the link with more details, Blondie, truly chilling and unbelievable how they did this...but why?

It was so unnecessary to kill all of these poor people to get the pills. Why bother with a disguise if you are not going to use it?

I'm sure the pharmacist and Ms. Mejia would have complied faced with the gun, if they'd had a chance!

And the customers didn't even know he was there or what was going on...

I am so glad they have those tapes, otherwise it would be hard to believe a man with no record or obvious problems would take the lives of FOUR people for a bunch of pills!

I'm curious about what they end up charging the wife with...I know in my state she would be charged the same for helping to plan and commit the robbery, even if she didn't kill anyone herself.

 

[starviego]

I am so glad they have those tapes...

The video stills they have released do not seem to resemble Laffer that much. The prosecution better hope the video itself is of better quality.


Was there a third person involved?

http://www.longislandpress.com/2011/06/22/report-medford-pharmacy-gunman-arrested/
A freelance photographer at the (arrest)scene posted on Twitter that a third person was also arrested.

http://articlechart.com/man-charged-for-robbing-food-delivery-person-poughkeepsie-journal/
Third Person Indicted in Medford Pharmacy Homicides – LongIslandPress A third person has been indicted in connection with the drugstore robbery that left four people dead. An assistant Suffolk County prosecutor made the announcement during a brief court proceeding Tuesday(6-28) involving 33-year-old David Laffer of Medford.

[Article was hastily removed.]

 

[jjenny]

The video stills they have released do not seem to resemble Laffer that much. The prosecution better hope the video itself is of better quality.
...

I totally disagree. I think the video stills resemble him quite a lot. He has a rather prominent nose.

 

[joe jones]

http://www.marinij.com/tablehome/ci_18387160

fuinerals held for victims

 

[starviego]

There is a lot of confusion as to exactly how many painpills were found in the home of the accused:

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/06...pharmacy-massacre-suspect-appearing-in-court/
dated June 24(two days after arrest)
Police said they found 11,000 hydrocodone*pills, a powerful painkiller, inside Laffer*and Brady’s basement apartment at Laffer’s mother’s home in Medford.

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/suffolk/officials-search-near-david-laffer-s-home-1.2990747?qr=1
dated 6-28
Suffolk police Det. Lt. Gerard Pelkofsky said the canvass in sewers along Pitchpine Place was for evidence of 10,000 hydrocodone pills, containers or packaging.

http://www.ctpost.com/news/article/DA-NY-shootings-suspect-staked-out-pharmacy-1446833.php
dated 6-30
.... the prosecutor did say 1,000 pain pills were found in the couple's house.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/06...spect-appearing-in-court-on-upgraded-charges/
dated 6-30
Police said they found 11,000 hydrocodone pills inside Laffer and Brady’s basement apartment .....


Why did it take so long for this evidence to be discovered? Also, if Melinda had a legitimate prescription for pain pills-which she allegedly gave her husband as an 'aid' to the robbery-why would they need to steal to feed their habit?

 

[joe jones]

glad to read the grand jury will revisit her sharges and hopefully add murder to her list of charges

they both conspired to rob the pharmacy, whether she knew he intended to kill or not she must have known he took his gun with him, and afterwards she deliberately went to try to set up the false alibi with him, plus she was the getaway driver so did she hear the gunshots as he ran from the store, and she had to have known post the murders as it would have been all over the news,

I think that she should be charged with murder as she was a part of the whole conspiracy, they both plotted to get a huge amount of pills, and murder was a part of the outcome, so she is as guilty as he is even though she did not pull the trigger

 

[Chewy]

Even if she didn't plan that people would be killed, the day it was revealed that they were she should have turned him in immediately. This is what drugs create.

I have not recently heard a crime that hurt my heart as badly as this one. It's shocking that this guy gave them no chance at all. And for no reason. He could have easily gotten away with it. It's terrible.

 

[starviego]

Whoops! Now we're back to 1,000 pills:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drug_killer_soda_jerk_lhHZSZidMYBUkNISNn38hM
dated 7-1
"Investigators said they recovered 1,000 painkiller pills from the home and are trying to persuade Brady to reveal the whereabouts of 9,000 other pills that were stolen."

Note they don't identify what kind of 'pain pills' were found in the home, so they could be talking about aspirin or ibuprofen, for all we know.

"With cold calculation, David Laffer allegedly gunned down four innocent people in a Long Island pharmacy, then shaved off the beard he'd darkened with mascara, changed his clothes and rushed to a nearby convenience store to create an alibi that he was buying a soft drink."

First the perp had a beard, then it was a fake beard, now it's a real beard augmented with mascara. So did a neighbor witness them arriving back at the house, and then driving away again minutes later so they could establish their 'alibi?' Does a single neighbor/acquaintance say that Laffer had a scraggly beard before the robbery? I doubt it.


/

 

[joe jones]

Whoops! Now we're back to 1,000 pills:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drug_killer_soda_jerk_lhHZSZidMYBUkNISNn38hM
dated 7-1
"Investigators said they recovered 1,000 painkiller pills from the home and are trying to persuade Brady to reveal the whereabouts of 9,000 other pills that were stolen."

Note they don't identify what kind of 'pain pills' were found in the home, so they could be talking about aspirin or ibuprofen, for all we know.

"With cold calculation, David Laffer allegedly gunned down four innocent people in a Long Island pharmacy, then shaved off the beard he'd darkened with mascara, changed his clothes and rushed to a nearby convenience store to create an alibi that he was buying a soft drink."

First the perp had a beard, then it was a fake beard, now it's a real beard augmented with mascara. So did a neighbor witness them arriving back at the house, and then driving away again minutes later so they could establish their 'alibi?' Does a single neighbor/acquaintance say that Laffer had a scraggly beard before the robbery? I doubt it.


/

they have video from the store where he murdered 4 people, they have video from the other store where he went to try to get an alibi, they have a bearded robber robbing and murdering they then have a clean shaven defendant, and they have his co accused saying he did it,
media reports of cases are very often incorrect or have widely varying facts,

whether it was a thousand or 10 thousand pills it really isn't that important in the scheme of things

more important to LE I am sure is the murder of 4 innocent people,

 

[starviego]

...they have video from the store where he murdered 4 people, they have his co accused saying he did it...

My bet is that the video is too dark, unfocused, or grainy for there to be a definite ID of Laffer as the gunman. As for his wife, she has only accused an unnamed accomplice; she has NOT IDed this person as David Laffer.


------------

When is a match not a match?

A couple of days after Laffer was arrested, police announced they had matched the bullets recovered from the crime scene to the .45cal handgun taken from Laffer's home. Investigators based their ballistics match using a bullet fired from Laffer's gun back in 1999, when he registered it with the local police department. But of course after 12 years of use the ballistics changes on the firing pin, the ejector pin, and the barrel due to wear.

http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/local/bride_and_zWTAt7qBQd5r1chtF74ZjO
(dated 6-23)
Ballistics tests revealed that two of the slugs found at the scene matched a bullet that had been previously fired -- for record-keeping purposes -- from Laffer's licensed .45-caliber pistol, sources said.

Now even that bit of evidence has been retracted:

http://www.longislandpress.com/2011/06/30/laffer-pleads-not-guilty-to-upgraded-murder-charges/
(on 6-30)
Prosecutors said they are confident that ballistics will match the bullets investigators found at the scene with the .45-caliber handgun registered to Laffer.

Well, at least the cops now say the expended shell casing gathered at the scene match the gun:

http://www.newsday.com/news/breaking/da-laffer-spent-days-casing-drugstores-1.2996140
(dated 6-30)
Other evidence uncovered by investigators includes seven shell casings -- six inside the pharmacy and another outside -- that were matched to Laffer's .45-caliber pistol.

However, this bit of damning evidence was only revealed eight days after the gun was seized, leading one to wonder why it took so long for investigators to discover the alleged match. Before that there was no mention at all in any news reports of any shell casing found at the crime scene.

 

[tapu]

Whoops! Now we're back to 1,000 pills:

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/drug_killer_soda_jerk_lhHZSZidMYBUkNISNn38hM
dated 7-1
"Investigators said they recovered 1,000 painkiller pills from the home and are trying to persuade Brady to reveal the whereabouts of 9,000 other pills that were stolen."

Note they don't identify what kind of 'pain pills' were found in the home, so they could be talking about aspirin or ibuprofen, for all we know.

"With cold calculation, David Laffer allegedly gunned down four innocent people in a Long Island pharmacy, then shaved off the beard he'd darkened with mascara, changed his clothes and rushed to a nearby convenience store to create an alibi that he was buying a soft drink."

First the perp had a beard, then it was a fake beard, now it's a real beard augmented with mascara. So did a neighbor witness them arriving back at the house, and then driving away again minutes later so they could establish their 'alibi?' Does a single neighbor/acquaintance say that Laffer had a scraggly beard before the robbery? I doubt it.


/

you figure that's some pretty strong evidence he didn't do it?

 

[starviego]

The defense does not need to 'prove' the defendant is innocent. The prosecution does, however, need to prove the defendant is guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt. My point is that the 'evidence' against Laffer seems to be more circumstantial than direct, and that will cause problems for the prosecution at trial.

 

[jjenny]

The defense does not need to 'prove' the defendant is innocent. The prosecution does, however, need to prove the defendant is guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt. My point is that the 'evidence' against Laffer seems to be more circumstantial than direct, and that will cause problems for the prosecution at trial.

Well it would be kind of hard to get the direct evidence, considering the four eyewitnesses are dead, don't you think?

 

[Reader]

My bet is that the video is too dark, unfocused, or grainy for there to be a definite ID of Laffer as the gunman. As for his wife, she has only accused an unnamed accomplice; she has NOT IDed this person as David Laffer.

(snipped)

If you will go back to my post #5 there are pictures of Laffer from the video inside and outside the store which look very clear to me.

Also, I'm am pretty sure since the DA/police say that the wife is cooperating and they have charged him with the murders, she did not name anyone else as doing this for her need for pills. There's a reason they are holding off on deciding what other charges to make against her.

 

[Reader]

they have video from the store where he murdered 4 people, they have video from the other store where he went to try to get an alibi, they have a bearded robber robbing and murdering they then have a clean shaven defendant, and they have his co accused saying he did it,
media reports of cases are very often incorrect or have widely varying facts,

whether it was a thousand or 10 thousand pills it really isn't that important in the scheme of things

more important to LE I am sure is the murder of 4 innocent people,

Exactly, joe!

Also, they have the gun match and remember one of the articles stated that James Manzella made a positive ID of the suspect, as he saw him when he came out of the store.

"James Manzella went to check on 'the love of his life' Jamie Taccetta, 33, after dropping her off at Haven Drugs in Medford, Long Island."

Plus, he left the prescription for his wife's pills, dropped on the floor, and his fingerprints were found on the counter, I believe.

There is plenty of circumstantial evidence and two direct witnesses to prove that he is the one who committed these murders, IMO.

 

[joe jones]

The defense does not need to 'prove' the defendant is innocent. The prosecution does, however, need to prove the defendant is guilty, beyond a reasonable doubt. My point is that the 'evidence' against Laffer seems to be more circumstantial than direct, and that will cause problems for the prosecution at trial.

his wife has admitted she drove him there, LE then have a video of a man (how clear it is we have yet to fully see as they have not realeased anything but a small part of it) with a beard who walked into the store with a bag (we do not know if LE have CTV from outside the store of the car or the defendants) he can be seen clearly enough by LE to take a gun from his bag and shoot the pharmacist, he then shot the assistant, he can then be seen twice moving to hide in order to ambuch the 2 customers who came in so he could shoot them,. he can be seen leaving

he is then seen clean shaven on CTV with his wife later on that day, the pilss from the store were found in there home,

she was reported to have said to media as she left court he did it, he did it all

there is a huge amount of direct evidence against both defendants before they even need to get to circumstantial,

she I thi8nk will offer to plead in exchange for her testimony, as she appears to be very willing to throw him under the bus