Nunez released from prison
Ex-Kingston dentist, freed on Monday, was once accused of killing lover’s husband but was convicted of other charges
KINGSTON, N.Y. » After spending 18 months behind bars, Gilberto Nunez, the former Kingston dentist once accused of killing his lover’s husband but convicted of numerous unrelated charges, is a free man.
Nunez, 51, was released from Altona Correctional Facility in Clinton County on Monday.
At the time of his conviction, Nunez, who had a dental practice on Washington Avenue in the city of Kingston, lived in Poughkeepsie with his wife.
While the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision declined to release detailed information about where Nunez is expected to live, it said he will report to a parole officer in Dutchess County, where Poughkeepsie is located. Nunez will remain on parole until Oct. 2, 2023.
A dentist with a busy solo practice prior to his conviction, Nunez won’t be resum-
ing his dental practice now that he’s out of prison.
In January, the state Board of Education revoked his license to practice dentistry for professional misconduct based on his conviction on a dozen counts of falsifying documents, larceny, insurance fraud, and perjury.
Nunez was convicted of a total of 12 felonies at three separate trials in Ulster County Court in 2016 and sentenced to two-andone-third to seven years.
He was granted parole in May under the “merit time” program, which, according to the state, allows some nonviolent inmates to receive a onesixth reduction of their minimum sentence if they
achieve certain programmatic objectives and have avoided serious disciplinary charges behind bars.
His release Monday was the earliest date he could be released.
Nunez was charged with second-degree murder in October 2015 for the November 2011 death of Saugerties resident Thomas Kolman. Nunez had been having an affair with Kolman’s wife, Linda, and prosecutors alleged Nunez killed the 44-year-old man by lacing a cup of coffee with a medical sedative so the dentist could have Linda Kolman to himself.
He was acquitted of murder after a 15-day trial in the spring of 2016.
The jury at that trial, however, convicted Nunez of two counts of perjury for having a fake CIA identification card on his computer
and for giving Linda Kolman a letter purporting to be from a CIA agent.
In October 2016, at the end of his second trial, Nunez was convicted of grand larceny, insurance fraud and falsifying business records, all related to an insurance claim he submitted after a February 2014 fire at a building he owned next to his Washington Avenue dental office.
Following a third trial in November 2016, he was found guilty of perjury, offering a false instrument, and filing an apparently false sworn statement for claiming on a pistol permit application that he never was terminated or discharged from employment or military service for cause. Nunez was, in fact, discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1990 under “other than honorable conditions” after being absent without leave, or AWOL, for almost three years.
Nunez must comply with 19 conditions placed on him by the Parole Board, including requirements that he find work or attend a vocational or educational program and participate in anti-aggression/anti-violence counseling.