Technicality nixes killer’s conviction

A Staten Island man serving life in prison for executing his ex-boss and a former colleague got his double murder conviction tossed on a technicality Wednesday — which could force prosecutors to try him again.

Ricky Dennis, 36, who was found guilty of the cold-blooded murder of his boss and a colleague in 2017, may get a whole new trial in Staten Island Supreme Court if prosecutors can’t successfully appeal the decision.

Judge William Garnett, who oversaw the court proceedings in Dennis’ 2018 conviction, committed a “proceeding error” by failing to give a verbatim reading of a jury note near the end of the trial, a panel of appellate court judges decided Wednesday.

The jury note had asked for a transcript of a phone call Dennis (inset) made from jail, and the appellate judges said its contents weren’t accurately conveyed by Garnett to the defense during the proceedings.

“The jury sent the court a note, marked as court exhibit number 4, which the court stated on the record as ‘asking for [the defendant’s] phone call from jail.’ This description, however, omitted the word ‘transcript,’ which was included at the end of the note in parentheses,” the judges wrote.

That oversight will give Dennis a potential second shot at a trial.

Dennis, who was indicted about a month after the Jan. 24, 2017, murders, was found guilty of taking his ex-boss, Michael Genovese, 57, and a former colleague, Carl Clark, 52, into the back of the Universal Merchant Funding building on Fuel Ave. on Staten Island and shooting them execution-style.

“I’m going to f—- him up,” Dennis allegedly told a co-worker about Genovese, shortly before quitting his job, according to the Staten Island Advance.

During the trial, Garnett said he would play the phone call again for the jury but not provide a transcript.

“The Supreme Court committed a mode of proceedings error when it failed to provide counsel with meaningful notice of the precise contents of the substantive juror inquiry, and therefore, reversal is required,” the appellate judges wrote.

Dennis is still under indictment for murder, and is currently being held at Sing Sing Correctional Facility serving his life without parole sentence, according to state records.