A jury in Riverhead convicted Darnell Festus, a 25-year-old Queens man, of first degree murder, second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder for the killing of 44-year-old James DiMartino, a Long Island real estate attorney, in the parking lot of a Commack restaurant in 2008.
Three months earlier, DiMartino’s business partner Ronald Thornton, 39, of Nesconset, was convicted of first degree murder and conspiracy charges after he paid Festus and another man $8,000 to kill DiMartino because he was afraid DiMartino would link him to fraudulent mortgage deals. He is serving a life sentence in the Five Points Maximum Security Correctional Facility in Romulus, New York.
A third defendant, Donovan Raysor, 22, of St. Albans, is scheduled to go on trial in September and is charged with first degree murder and conspiracy.
advertisement
It took the jury four days of deliberations to find Festus guilty. Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota has stated that he will recommend that Festus be sentenced to life in prison without parole. State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs will deliver a sentence on August 19.
