‘Jeans used’ to choke Sutton slay vic

James Rackover ordered two pals to strip and then used one of their pairs of jeans to choke an unconscious Hofstra grad before the young man was stabbed to death, according to a grisly blow-byblow account offered Wednesday by a co-defendant in the case.

Max Gemma said in court papers he was asleep on a couch in Rackover’s Grand Sutton co-op when he awoke to the sounds of victim Joey Comunale fighting with Lawrence Dilione.

When Dilione knocked out 26-Comunale, 26, with a punch, “Rackover taunted the defenseless Comunale, punched and kicked him in the head and face several times and smashed the back of his head into the hardwood floor several times,” the Manhattan Supreme Court filing states.

The Nov. 13 attack “left Comunale bleeding profusely and created a bloody mess in the living room.” Then Rackover, 28, an ex-con from Florida, “panicked about returning to prison,” say the court papers, filed by Gemma lawyer Mark Bederow.

“He ordered Gemma and Dilione to take off their clothes. They complied,” according to Gemma’s account.

“Rackover straddled Comunale and tightly wrapped what appeared to be the jeans Dilione had been wearing around his hands, as if he was preparing to choke Comunale.”

Gemma says Dilione then led him into Rackover’s bedroom, where he stayed “until Dilione told him to leave the apartment.”

“When Gemma left, Comunale was no longer on the living-room floor and Rackover, who was standing in the bathtub, glared at Gemma,” who asked Dilione if he should worry “about Rackover harming him in light of what he witnessed,” court papers say.

Gemma, 29, who is charged with hindering prosecution, detailed the incident in a bid to be tried separately from Rackover and Dilione.