The Joey Comunale murder case ended with two convictions and a third guilty plea for the November 2016 killing of a 26-year-old Connecticut man at a Manhattan after-party. James Rackover is serving 28⅔ years to life for second-degree murder. Lawrence Dilione pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and received 23 years. Max Gemma served six months for hindering prosecution. Comunale was stabbed 15 times inside a luxury Upper East Side apartment, and his burned body was found three days later in a shallow grave behind a New Jersey florist shop.
What Happened the Night Comunale Was Killed
Joseph “Joey” Comunale, a Stamford native and Hofstra graduate, went out on Saturday, November 12, 2016, to the Gilded Lily, a club in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. Around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, he left with Lawrence Dilione, James Rackover, and three women. The group went to Rackover’s apartment, Unit 4C in the Grand Sutton, a luxury high-rise on East 59th Street.1CBS News. Joey Comunale Murder: Social Media Clues, Disappearance, Apartment 4C
A dispute broke out inside the apartment. According to Dilione’s later account, it began over something trivial, with Comunale remarking that he had bought cigarettes and Rackover had supplied cocaine, then asking Dilione what he had contributed. Dilione admitted he punched Comunale three times and knocked him unconscious.2People. Where Are the Men Who Attacked Joey Comunale Now What followed became the central dispute at trial. Dilione said Rackover escalated the violence and decided Comunale had to be killed so Rackover would not go back to prison for assault. Rackover said he was out buying drugs during the attack and had no part in the killing.3Vanity Fair. Murder at Sutton Place
Comunale was stabbed 15 times in the chest, nine wounds on the right side and six on the left. Prosecutors argued the medical evidence showed he had been beaten by two people and stabbed from both sides.4CBS News New York. James Rackover Sentencing
How the Body Was Hidden
The men tried to dismember Comunale in the apartment’s bathtub with a kitchen knife. The attempt failed when they could not cut through the upper arm.5Vanity Fair. Murder at Sutton Place They scrubbed the apartment with bleach and dumped bloody towels, bedsheets, clothing, and Comunale’s driver’s license and college ID down the building’s trash chute.6New York Daily News. Testimony at Rackover Trial Shows Murder Suspects Left Behind Huge Stash of Blood-Stained Evidence in Trash
Under cover of darkness, they wrapped the body in plastic and a comforter and dropped it from the fourth-floor window onto the sidewalk. They loaded it into the trunk of a black 2015 Mercedes-Benz AMG S 63 belonging to Jeffrey Rackover, the prominent jeweler who served as James Rackover’s benefactor. The two drove about 60 miles to Oceanport, New Jersey, and buried Comunale in a shallow grave behind Foggia Florist on Monmouth Boulevard. Before covering the grave, they doused the body with gasoline found in an abandoned truck and set it on fire.5Vanity Fair. Murder at Sutton Place
How Police Solved It
When Joey did not come home, his father, Pat Comunale, filed missing-person reports with Stamford police and the NYPD’s 17th Precinct on Monday, November 14. Pat went to the Grand Sutton with detectives and identified his son in surveillance footage entering the building with Dilione and three women at roughly 6:50 a.m. Sunday. He was never recorded leaving.7ABC7 New York. Timeline and Details in Murder of Missing Man in Manhattan That footage contradicted the story Rackover and Dilione had given, which had Comunale leaving the party at dawn.
Pat also spotted a porter collecting the building’s garbage and pressed detectives to hold it. Inside the bags, investigators recovered Comunale’s torn, bleach-stained clothing, his identification, blood-stained towels and sheets, empty cleaning-product bottles, clothing belonging to Rackover, Dilione, and Gemma, and a dry-cleaning receipt with Rackover’s name and apartment number.6New York Daily News. Testimony at Rackover Trial Shows Murder Suspects Left Behind Huge Stash of Blood-Stained Evidence in Trash
On Tuesday, November 15, Dilione admitted to detectives that they had taken the body to Oceanport and buried it, and he provided a map of the site.8ABC7 Chicago. Timeline and Details in Murder of Missing Man in Manhattan The same day, a cadaver dog alerted on the trunk and rear panels of the Mercedes-Benz, parked in a garage on East 58th Street, and on the interior of Rackover’s apartment, where investigators found blood splatter.9ABC7 Chicago. Timeline Details Revealed in Murder of Missing Man Found Stabbed 15 Times License plate readers had tracked the Mercedes from the Upper East Side onto the FDR Drive and through the Holland Tunnel into New Jersey at 9:45 p.m. Sunday, returning through the tunnel at 3:00 a.m. Monday.
On Wednesday, November 16, NYPD and Oceanport police located Comunale’s body in a one-foot-deep grave behind the florist shop, alongside a large duffel bag. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide caused by 15 stab wounds to the torso. Rackover and Dilione were arraigned the next day on charges of concealment of a human corpse, tampering with physical evidence, and hindering prosecution, each held on $3 million bond or $300,000 cash bail.10ABC News. Men Charged in Murder Stabbing Death of Joseph Comunale
Who James Rackover Was
James Rackover was born James Beaudoin II in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in March 1991. He had a criminal record that included trespassing, burglary, strong-armed robbery, drug possession, and cutting off an ankle monitor, and he served 18 months at Florida’s South Bay Correctional Facility after a juvenile robbery conviction and a no-contest plea to burglary.11WRAL. Jeweler’s Surrogate Son Guilty of Killing Connecticut Man
He moved to New York in early 2012 and in 2013 met Jeffrey Rackover, a diamond dealer with celebrity clients who took Beaudoin in as a surrogate son, gave him a spare bedroom in his Grand Sutton apartment, and provided financial support. The two presented themselves publicly as father and son, though Jeffrey never formally adopted him. In March 2015, Beaudoin legally changed his surname to Rackover with Jeffrey’s consent, and later that year Jeffrey helped him secure his own separate apartment, Unit 4C, in the same building.12Vanity Fair. Murder at Sutton Place
The Trial and Verdict
Rackover and Dilione were tried separately, with Rackover going first. His trial opened in October 2018 before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke, with defense attorneys Maurice Sercarz and Rob Caliendo representing him.1CBS News. Joey Comunale Murder: Social Media Clues, Disappearance, Apartment 4C
The prosecution relied on the physical evidence from the apartment and the trash chute, the Grand Sutton surveillance footage, and testimony from Louis Ruggiero, who said Rackover had confessed to him, “I slit his throat.”1CBS News. Joey Comunale Murder: Social Media Clues, Disappearance, Apartment 4C Dilione did not testify; his own case was still pending.13Vanity Fair. Murder at Sutton Place
The defense conceded Rackover had helped cover up the killing but insisted he did not commit it, pointing at Dilione as the sole attacker and presenting a dented ring said to have been worn by Dilione as evidence he delivered the blows.1CBS News. Joey Comunale Murder: Social Media Clues, Disappearance, Apartment 4C Prosecutors countered that the wound pattern showed two attackers.
On November 2, 2018, after roughly five hours of deliberation, the jury convicted Rackover on all counts: second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree hindering prosecution, and concealment of a human corpse.14CBS News. James Rackover Gets Max Sentence in Slaying of Party Guest
The Sentences
On December 5, 2018, Justice Burke sentenced Rackover to 25 years to life for the murder plus a consecutive 2⅓ to 7 years for hindering prosecution, a total of 28⅔ years to life. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance called it “the maximum permitted by state law.” From the bench, Justice Burke said “there remains no truly understandable reason that Joey Comunale is dead today,” adding that “in the normal course of events, people drink and do drugs and party all night long all the time without being savagely murdered.”15Hartford Courant. James Rackover Gets Maximum Sentence for Murder of Connecticut Man Pat Comunale addressed the court, saying his son “was everything” and calling the defendants “cowards who have shown no remorse.”16ABC7 New York. Joseph Comunale Murder: 3rd Man Charged Gets 6 Months
In January 2019, with trial approaching, Dilione pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in Manhattan Supreme Court.17New York Post. Suspect Enters Surprise Guilty Plea in Jeweler to the Stars Murder Case On February 6, 2019, he was sentenced to 23 years.18CBS News New York. Lawrence Dilione Sentence in Joseph Comunale Murder
Max Gemma, who was in the apartment that night, had been indicted on two counts of hindering prosecution and one count of tampering with evidence. Prosecutors alleged he witnessed the beating, failed to report it, lied to police, and helped clean the scene.19New York Post. Final Defendant Gets Sweetheart Deal in Jeweler to the Stars Case In February 2019 he pleaded guilty to one count of hindering prosecution. He was sentenced on April 12, 2019, to six months in jail and was released in August 2019.16ABC7 New York. Joseph Comunale Murder: 3rd Man Charged Gets 6 Months
The Civil Cases
Jeffrey Rackover was never criminally charged. His Mercedes was used to move the body and his apartment was in the same building, but the evidence indicated he was asleep in his 32nd-floor unit while the killing took place on the fourth floor. His spokesman, former detective Bo Dietl, said he was “devastated.”12Vanity Fair. Murder at Sutton Place
Pat Comunale filed a civil complaint in Manhattan Supreme Court in November 2017 naming Jeffrey Rackover as a defendant, alleging he had helped the cover-up by providing cleaning supplies and allowing use of his car. The suit pleaded violation of the right of sepulcher and intentional infliction of emotional distress.20Courthouse News. Dad Ties Celebrity Jeweler to Grisly NYC Murder Jeffrey Rackover’s attorney denied any involvement and predicted “total vindication.”21National Jeweler. Well-Known Jeweler Helped Cover Up Murder, Lawsuit Says
A separate negligence action was filed against the Grand Sutton building, its owner, unit owner Chista Ghaffari, and two real estate companies, alleging they had subleased the apartment to someone with a known history of violence and that staff failed to act on suspicious activity the morning of the killing.22New York Post. Dad of Jeweler to the Stars Murder Victim Sues Luxury Apartment Building
The broader civil action, Comunale v. Rackover (Index No. 160094/2017), included claims for conscious pain and suffering, wrongful death, violation of the right of sepulcher, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. Discovery was stayed in June 2018 pending the criminal cases. In April 2020, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Robert D. Kalish granted summary judgment to Max Gemma, dismissing him from the suit because his 2019 Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge had relieved him of personal liability and no insurance coverage applied. The court noted Gemma’s role in “covering up Joseph’s murder” and declined to award him costs. Claims against Rackover and Dilione remained stayed.23Justia. Comunale v Rackover, 2020 NY Slip Op 31184(U)
Where They Are Now
As of 2026, James Rackover is incarcerated at Elmira Correctional Facility in Chemung County, New York, with an earliest possible release date of July 16, 2045. Lawrence Dilione is at Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, with a projected earliest release date of January 12, 2037.2People. Where Are the Men Who Attacked Joey Comunale Now Max Gemma completed his six-month sentence in August 2019. Pat Comunale has said he visits his son’s grave every day.