They killed to cover their tracks
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The young lover of a 43-year-old Tompkinsville woman is under arrest on charges he and a friend choked and stabbed her to death, then torched her apartment over the weekend.
Police say Luis Morell, 18, and his friend Jose Capo, 19, who goes by the nickname "Blaze," went to Colene Adams' Woodstock Avenue apartment to rob her early Sunday morning.
Morell had been dating Ms. Adams for at least a month, neighbors said.
The two teens choked Ms. Adams and began ransacking her apartment.
When she stirred, they stabbed her multiple times with a pair of scissors to finish her off, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday.
They then used a bottle of Bacardi rum to fuel a fire in an attempt to cover up the killing.
One source said Ms. Adams was stabbed between 17 and 30 times.
An investigation by NYPD detectives and FDNY fire marshals led to the arrests of Morell and Capo on charges of murder, arson and tampering with evidence.
Both suspects made statements incriminating themselves, Kelly said.
The teens are expected to be arraigned in Stapleton Criminal Court today, said William J. Smith, a spokesman for District Attorney Daniel Donovan.
"He had a clean home. He had everything here," Ms. Lugo said in an interview with the Advance in her Corson Avenue house yesterday afternoon. "If it's true that he did the crime, he's going to have to pay for it."
Capo, who was in foster care for several years, often moved from address to address, but spent the past couple of weeks staying with Ms. Lugo.
Hours before the slaying, Capo and several members of Ms. Lugo's family gathered at her house to help prepare some of the dishes for a Thanksgiving dinner. Ms. Lugo has 10 children and 12 grandchildren.
But when she rose at 4 a.m. for her daily devotions, she noticed he was gone, and other family members said he had gotten a call to hang out with Morell, whom she never trusted.
"I never let him inside my house," Ms. Lugo said of Morell, adding that he never made eye contact with her when they met. "I didn't want him inside here, because I get this bad feeling in my stomach."
No one answered the door at Morell's Benziger Avenue home yesterday afternoon.
Ms. Lugo said she got a call from Capo from the 120th Precinct stationhouse sometime after he was taken into custody.
"He said, 'Grandma, I'm sorry for all this that you're going through.'... I told him, 'I hope God forgives you. Repent.' I said, 'Tell the truth. The truth will set you free.' "
Capo, who court records show has a pending assault, menacing and weapons case against him from this past May, has been in trouble since he was a young boy, Ms. Lugo said.
Court records show both Capo and Morell received summonses last month for drinking in a public park.
Said Ms. Lugo, "I don't think it was right, and if he did have alcohol and drug problems, he had a chance, he could talk to me."
And if he's guilty, she said, she won't visit him in prison.
"I'll talk to him on the phone," she said, adding, "I love you. It didn't take the love away from you. But I'm not happy. I won't visit."
Ms. Adams' downstairs neighbors said they heard conversation and footsteps from her apartment at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, but nothing to suggest anything was wrong. Neither neighbor would give a name, saying they feared retribution.
They described her as a quiet, friendly woman, a live-in home health aide with very little by way of family.
Her mother recently died, they said, and she had no siblings. Occasionally, she'd speak of an aunt or a cousin.
"Great person. Very quiet. Very reserved," one of the neighbors said. "Just a regular, average girl. If you saw her in the street, you wouldn't even notice her." TAG: Advance news reporter Peter N. Spencer contributed to this report.
John Annese is a news reporter for the Advance. He may be reached at annese@siadvance.com.
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