The Case of Joey Comunale

Joseph "Joey" Comunale, 26, was murdered inside apartment 4C at the Grand Sutton on Manhattan's Upper East Side in the early morning of November 13, 2016. After a night out in Manhattan, Comunale attended a party at James Rackover's apartment with Lawrence Dilione and others. Comunale was beaten and stabbed before Rackover and Dilione attempted to conceal his death by moving, burning and burying his body in New Jersey.

Joey Comunale was a 26-year-old Stamford, Connecticut, resident and graduate of Hofstra University. He worked in sales for his family's security business. On the night of November 12, 2016, Comunale travelled to Manhattan with friends and went out to the Gilded Lily nightclub in Chelsea. During the early morning hours of November 13, he met Lawrence Dilione outside the club and subsequently accompanied Dilione and several others to James Rackover's apartment 4C at the Grand Sutton, a luxury residential building at 418 East 59th Street. The gathering continued through the early morning. Alcohol and cocaine were consumed during the party. After the other partygoers left, Comunale remained at the apartment with Rackover, Dilione and Max Gemma.

According to Dilione's later account, an argument broke out between him and Comunale after the women had left. Dilione admitted that he attacked Comunale, punching and knocking him to the floor. Rackover then became involved in the assault. Comunale was beaten and stabbed repeatedly. A later civil filing by his family stated that he suffered 15 stab wounds to the chest, multiple skull fractures, facial fractures and numerous broken ribs. Comunale died inside apartment 4C. The men then attempted to clean the apartment using bleach and paper towels and began planning how to dispose of his body. Surveillance footage showed them moving around the building while apparently looking for a way to remove the body without being detected. The body was eventually wrapped in a comforter and moved from the apartment. Rackover's black Mercedes was used during the disposal operation. The body was transported to Oceanport, New Jersey, where it was placed in a shallow grave behind a florist shop. Gasoline was poured over the body and it was partially burned in an attempt to destroy evidence.

Comunale's father, Pat Comunale, reported his son missing after he failed to return home and could not be contacted. Investigators immediately began reconstructing his final movements through surveillance footage and social-media posts. Building surveillance showed Comunale entering the Grand Sutton with the group during the early morning hours. When detectives went to apartment 4C, Rackover initially claimed that he had hosted a party and said he did not know what had happened to the young man who had attended. Investigators found evidence of blood inside the apartment. A cadaver dog subsequently alerted to the presence of human remains or bodily fluids in both apartment 4C and Rackover's Mercedes. Police also recovered numerous pieces of evidence from the apartment, including clothing belonging to Comunale, blood evidence and cleaning materials. Dilione was interviewed by police on November 15. He eventually told investigators that he and another man had taken Comunale's body to Oceanport and buried it in a vacant lot. He then showed detectives the location on a map. Police recovered Comunale's body from the shallow grave on November 16. The autopsy established that Comunale had suffered multiple stab wounds and extensive blunt-force injuries. The investigation also uncovered the involvement of Max Gemma, who had been present at the apartment. Gemma was not charged with murder but was later convicted of hindering prosecution.

James Rackover was tried for Comunale's murder. In November 2018, a Manhattan jury convicted Rackover of second-degree murder, hindering prosecution and concealment of a human corpse. He was sentenced in December 2018 to 28⅔ years to life in prison. Lawrence Dilione pleaded guilty in January 2019 to first-degree manslaughter. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Max Gemma pleaded guilty to first-degree hindering prosecution and received a six-month sentence. The New York courts later upheld Rackover's conviction.

The case became widely known as the Apartment 4C murder because the killing occurred inside Rackover's luxury Manhattan apartment and was followed by an elaborate attempt to conceal the crime. The case also attracted considerable attention because of the extreme contrast between the seemingly ordinary night out that brought Comunale to the apartment and the violent assault and subsequent effort to dispose of his body.