CARMEL – The 2008 New Year’s Eve Day murder of John Marcinak outside his Garrison garage shocked the close-knit community.
Anthony Grigoroff, who was a teenager at the time, was twice convicted in the killing of the highly respected 49-year-old businessperson after a botched robbery and sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Last December, the State Supreme Court Appellate Division overturned the verdict and ordered a new trial.
Putnam County Judge Joseph Spofford has now approved the 35-year-old’s release from the Putnam Correctional Facility with an ankle monitor while he awaits a new trial.
Spofford set bail at $300,000 bond. He will only leave the house in Ossining, where he will be staying for legal and medical appointments; and to call Putnam’s Probation Department twice a week.
In April, Putnam County District Attorney Robert Tendy offered a plea deal that would release the former Lake Peekskill resident should he plead guilty to one count of burglary.
Under the deal, Grigoroff would receive credit for time served.
Tendy offered the deal partly to spare Marcinak’s family the ordeal of another trial.
Tendy said: ““Their lives have been destroyed. They want this case to be over by any means possible.”
Tendy opposed Judge Spofford’s decision to set bail, arguing that Grigoroff still faces 25 years to life if convicted and therefore has a strong incentive to flee.
Attorney Bruce Barket contends that his client’s confession to the crime was false and that Grigoroff did not receive a fair trial since investigators used deceptive tactics during the lengthy 12-hour interrogation.
The prosecution believes the confession will result in Grigoroff’s conviction.
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 attorney said, and that in the third trial the jury should learn what causes someone to falsely confess.
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