Jury selection set to begin
TROY >> Jury selection is expected to begin Monday in Rensselaer County Court in the trial of the man accused of killing a Lansingburgh woman and her unborn child in April 2014, then setting fire to the woman’s home.
Gabriel Vega, 19, faces charges including murder, burglary, arson and abortion in the deaths of Vanessa Milligan, 19, and their daughter, Alina Brielle. Police said Milligan was just days from giving birth when she and the baby were killed April 3, 2014, inside the apartment she shared with her grandmother at 271 5th Ave.
Police said Vega then set fire to the home to try to cover up the crime, causing extensive damage to both that building and a neighboring home at 269 5th Ave.
Vega was arrested six months after Milligan’s death on an indictment charging him with firstand second-degree murder, first-degree abortion, first- and second-degree burglary, and second- and third-degree arson. He was picked up by federal marshals on Central Avenue in Albany on Oct. 22, 2014, and has been held in the Rensselaer County jail since his arrest.
Police described Vega as a “classic psychopath” at the time of his arrest and said investigators had built “an overwhelmingly strong case” against him. Prosecutors, however, said that while he was charged with murder in Milligan’s death, he could only be charged with abortion in the death of their daughter because the baby had yet to be born and state law did not allow a murder charge in the death of an unborn child.