CARMEL – The 2008 New Year’s Eve Day murder of John Marcinak outside his Garrison garage shocked the close-knit community.
Anthony Grigoroff, a teenager at the time was twice convicted of murdering the 49-year-old highly respected businessman following the botched robbery and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Last December, the State Supreme Court Appellate Division overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial.
Now Putnam County District Attorney Robert Tendy has offered a plea deal that would release the former Lake Peekskill resident should he plead guilty to one count of burglary.
Grigoroff would be sentenced to time served in prison.
Attorneys Bruce Barket and Danielle Muscatello contend that their client’s confession to the crime was false and that Grigoroff failed to receive a fair trial.
In its four-page decision, the high court ruled that Grigoroff was “deprived of a fair trial since the sole evidence linking the defendant with the crime was his confession which he attempted to repudiate arguing that promises made by the police rendered his statements involuntary by creating a substantial risk that the defendant might falsely incriminate himself.”
Grigoroff’s confession came after 12 hours of interrogation, his attorneys said, and that in the third trial the jury should learn what causes someone to falsely confess.
A hearing on the case is scheduled before Putnam County Judge Joseph Spofford on April 21.
Grigoroff was recently transferred from the maximum-security Sing Sing prison in Ossining to the Putnam Correctional Facility as the case proceeds through the judicial process.
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