Killer not convincing
Shunned as he confesses to ’78 slay to cops
The Connecticut man who confessed to an 1978 East Harlem murder revealed to his local police what he’d done — but they didn’t have enough evidence to arrest him, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Leandro Teissonniere told New Haven police about the drug deal killing on May 13 because “he could no longer live with it.” But cops couldn’t conclude anything and turned him away, said Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast.
“Two days later, he was taking a train to Manhattan, and he told the conductor he was going to Grand Central to turn himself in for a murder he had committed a long time ago,” Hast said at his arraignment.
Teissonniere, 64, flip-flopped on the details before confessing to cops that he fatally shot Esteban “Chino” Vega at a Lexington Ave. restaurant on Dec. 11, 1978.
“I shot this guy called Chino,” he reportedly told police after his mass transit mea culpa. He was turned loose again as NYPD investigators dug out the 42-yearold case file and launched a new investigation, said Hast.
Teissonniere was finally arrested last week at his New Haven home — five months after his
Metro-North confession — then brought to Manhattan and held on $500,000 bond while awaiting arraignment.
The suspect, wearing a khaki jumpsuit and oversized brown mask, shook his head and said nothing at his Wednesday court hearing when asked why he made the conscience-clearing admissions.
He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, and was ordered held without bail.
Prosecutors said the victim had shown up at Teissonniere’s Queens home in 1978 to buy marijuana, but instead tried to rob him and wound up running away to Manhattan.
“The defendant (Teissonniere) got some of his friends together and they went hunting for the victim,” Hast said. “The defendant fired two shots at the victim, one shot to the head at very close range. And when (the victim) fell, he fired another shot at the victim’s shoulder.”