Suspect surrenders in financier's slaying
From Phil Hirschkorn
(CNN) -- Daniel Pelosi has been charged with multimillionaire Ted Ammon's killing.
The 40-year-old electrician was arraigned Tuesday on a single charge of murder in the second degree in New York's Suffolk County Court in eastern Long Island.
Pelosi pleaded not guilty and was held without bail.
Ammon, a 52-year-old investment banker worth more than $50 million, was bludgeoned to death in October 2001 inside his mansion in the tony Long Island beach town of East Hampton.
Pelosi surrendered without incident after being informed Monday that a grand jury had returned an indictment against him.
The charge was sealed until his court appearance.
If convicted, Pelosi could face a sentence of 25 years to life in prison under New York state law.
"We're looking for an early trial -- sometime in June," said defense attorney Paul Bergman.
Although Ammon was killed two and a half years ago, the special grand jury that returned the indictment was convened to hear evidence in the case only last June.
"The reason it took nine months is because the defense in every step of the grand jury investigation obstructed in any way they could," said Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota.
Pelosi's attorneys called the government's case "weak."
"When a prosecutor walks into court and says we've been investigating this case for two and a half years, grand jury investigation for nine months, and we have 51 witnesses, you know what that means -- they have a circumstantial evidence case, and I suggest it's a weak circumstantial evidence case," said defense attorney Gerald Shargel.
"Nothing about fingerprints, nothing about DNA, and nothing about hair samples," Bergman said. "They claim a stun gun was used," apparently to subdue Ammon, whom prosecutors said had marks on his neck and back.
Prosecutors also said Pelosi remotely accessed the video surveillance system inside Ammon's East Hampton house at 2 a.m. on the night of his death.
Pelosi knew about the system but he and his attorneys deny widely published reports that he installed it.
Suspicion has hovered over Pelosi since Ammon's death because of his romance at the time with the victim's estranged wife, Generosa, who went on to inherit half of Ammon's fortune.
Although close to finalizing their divorce in the fall of 2001, Ammon never changed his will before he was killed. Generosa Ammon married Pelosi three months later.
Generosa died of breast cancer in July 2003. She left Pelosi $2 million and the rest of her money -- more than $30 million -- to the now 14-year-old twins from Ukraine she had adopted with Ammon. Pelosi was contesting her will.
Pelosi has been in and out of court during the past two years for drunken driving and was jailed for four months for his most recent offense. He also faces charges of illegal billing for electrical work.
Ammon was a key player in one of Wall Street's biggest deals in the 1980s -- the leveraged buyout of RJR-Nabisco -- and started his own venture capital firm in the 1990s.
Generosa, an artist and real estate broker, became Ammon's second wife in 1986. Seven years later the couple adopted a boy and a girl from Ukraine. The children are now in temporary custody of their nanny. Ammon's sister in Alabama is seeking custody of the children.
Besides the Hamptons house, Ammon owned a Fifth Avenue apartment and an estate in England, where Generosa Amman and Pelosi lived immediately after Ted Ammon's death.
Ammon was a philanthropist, donating millions to Bucknell University and working to save Manhattan landmarks.
