Friends in S.I. can’t believe he killed his mother
his girlfriend days later and another friend nine years after that.
“Jordan said that if Jason Mizell were still alive, he would kill him again,” Gonzalez said.
Washington’s lawyer Ezra Spilke countered that prosecutors were relying on half-remembered memories and rumors.
“This whole case revolves around 10 seconds 21 years ago, a blink of an eye, a generation ago,” he said. “[Prosecutors] don’t know who killed Jason Mizell. They have no clue who did it. … For years, the police could not figure out who did it.”
He added, “These folks pulled a rumor here, and a version of events there, and took a piece of taping glue and stuck it together.”
As for the witnesses, “We’re not saying they’re all a bunch of liars. We’re not saying that. But common sense memories can fade.”
The jury heard from several law enforcement witnesses testifying about the night of the killing.
Retired NYPD Detective James Lusk, one of the first cops to arrive at the scene, described how Lydia High’s brother, Randy Allen, ran to the 103th Precinct stationhouse less than a block away, frantically telling them about the shooting.
When Lusk got into the studio he saw Mizell on the floor, with Rincon curled up on the green sofa.
“He was yelling and screaming that he was shot and he needed help,” Lusk said. High, he recalled, was in the hallway, “crying hysterically. She was just emotionally distraught.”
Jordan and tells you that
Washington’s defense teams grilled Lusk about gaps in the NYPD’s initial investigation, Jordan’s lawyer Michael Hueston asking if any photos were taken of the fire escape the duo were accused of using to access the building. The detective didn’t recall any, and prosecutors entered more recent pictures of the fire escape into evidence, but none from 2002.
Jacqueline Cistaro, who represents Washington, quizzed Lusk if he knew whether any of the five people inside the studio called 911, despite the presence of a cell phone or a landline. The detective said he didn’t know if anyone did.
“Not one of these five individuals called police for help?” she asked. “And no one called an ambulance for help?”
Testimony in the trial resumes Tuesday morning.
Friends of a Staten Island man recently accused of murdering his mother were left stunned by the charges on Monday.
Rosalie Sutera (above), 82, was found dead in her Annadale home on Jan. 17 with no signs of trauma, said police, but the city medical examiner later ruled the death a homicide.
The great-grandmother’s funeral was held at Holy Child Church last week. The following day, her son Carl Sutera, 59, was arrested and charged with murder, according to cops.
“There’s no way he did this, there’s no way,” said Carmine Vivolo, who has known the accused since they were both age 5.
“I feel he’s been framed, he’s at the wrong place at the wrong time,” Vivolo added. “He’s never shown that kind of anger.”
On the contrary, said Vivolo, Carl Sutera is a generous, caring friend who came to his rescue with an electrical problem even though the two hadn’t seen each other in many years.
“I think it’s a shame, but I don’t think he did this,” said Vivolo. “I just hope for the best for him.”
Friend opinion.
“As far as I’m concerned there’s no way on God’s green Earth he did this,” said DiMasi, a barber. “I pray every day it’s not true.”
DiMasi knows multiple generations of the Sutera family and remembered the matriarch as “a sweet, kind, nice, loving person” who took her husband’s 2022 death hard.
“I will be in his corner until they say they’re 100% sure he did this,” DiMasi said of Sutera.
“Anything he needs from me, his family needs from me, if he needs a character witness, I am there 1000% for them.”
Sutera’s arrest marks the third time in a week a son was charged with killing his mother in the city. Andrew Eugene, 36, was charged with murder and aggravated cruelty to animals after allegedly stabbing his mom Donna Hyman, 57, and her poodle Gigi before throwing the dog off the 11th-floor balcony in Starrett City, Brooklyn, on Jan. 19
Meyer Sperber, 48, was charged with the stabbing deaths of his parents, Jacob and Rachel Sperber, both 75, in Borough Park, Brooklyn, on Jan. 20.
Louie
DiMasi seconded the