Victim: Joseph Comunale’s [left]  body was found in a wooded area behind a flower shop in New Jersey in Nov 2016 . James Rackover was convicted in November of second degree murder, concealing a human corpse and tampering with evidence in Comunale’s death

Rackover, 27, and former friend, Lawrence Dilione, 30, were arrested and charged with the murder. Rackover’s trial began on Thursday and since then, jurors have been shown evidence discovered dumped in trash bags at the Grand Sutton on E. 59th Street in Manhattan, NY, within two days of the murder.

A blood soaked white bedsheet splattered was also shown to the jurors during he trial. A gold chain necklace was caught inside the sheet. The piece of jewelry belonged to Comunale, whose friend said he was wearing the chain the night he was murdered.
Rackover and his co-defendant Dilione, beat and repeatedly stabbed Comunale before trying to dismember him in the bathtub after an argument at a drug and booze-fueled party, prosecutors charged.
They then covered his body in plastic wrap and a blanket, tossed it out a window from the rear of the building and drove to Oceanport, N.J., where they dumped it in a shallow grave, according to the prosecution case.

Related:  Prosecution show blood-stained clothes and bed sheets found dumped in the trash outside luxury home of James Rackover – Manhattan party boy is accused of killing and dismembering a guest at his house party

Rutgers student Joseph ‘Joey’ Comunale, 26, of Connecticut was killed on Nov 13, 2016 – James Rackover, 27, and Lawrence Dilione, 30, have been accused of […]

Alleged ‘Party killer’, James Rackover ‘was not born James Rackover’: Party boy James Beaudoin, changed his last name to match close friend and celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover – he has been charged along with pal James Lawrence Dilione, with the murder of Joseph Comunale

He was born James Beaudoin in Florida and has been arrested multiple times for burglary, armed robbery, and drug possession  Sentenced to 6 years in prison on a plea deal […]

Grieving parents Lisa and Pat Comunale address the media after Rackover’s sentencing

‘This is precisely the rare kind of case that maximum consecutive sentences are reserved for, and no other lesser sentence would make much sense,’ Burke said.

 ‘James Rackover committed a brutal and unconscionable crime when he killed Joey Comunale and abandoned him at a makeshift gravesite in New Jersey‘ – District Attorney Cy Vance [right], said after the sentencing

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance in a statement said, ‘James Rackover committed a brutal and unconscionable crime when he killed Joey Comunale and abandoned him at a makeshift gravesite in New Jersey,’ Vance said after sentencing, Wednesday.
‘The judge’s sentence of 28 and 2/3 years-to-life in prison — the maximum permitted by state law — was the only appropriate sentence to address the pain and loss that Joey’s murder inflicted on the Comunale family,’ Vance added
‘I think it sends a message to the other two defendants,’ Pat Comunale told reporters after the verdict.
‘The judge made the right decision.’
Still facing trial are Larry Dillione, charged with murder, and Max Gemma, charged with lesser crimes of covering up the murder.
Last month, Rackover was found guilty on four counts for the death of Comunale.

The pair met Comunale at a Greenwich Village nightclub and the trio had returned to Rackover’s home but got in a fight in an apparent row over cigarettes.
Other reports indicated at the time that it was because Comunale had rejected their sexual advances.
Related:  New suit claims celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover helped his surrogate son James, hide body of slayed Manhattan partygoer Joseph Comunale who he’d stabbed to death
Suit claims celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover helped his surrogate son hide body of slayed Manhattan partygoer  James Rackover and his pal Lawrence Dillion, 28, have been […]

Manhattan party murder suspects James Rackover and Lawrence Dilione point accusing fingers at each other in the killing and butchering of Joseph Comunale; Suspects tell cops victim was ‘killed during fight over a cigarette’
Celebrity party boy James Rackover [left] is charged with killing Joseph Comunale [right]. Rackover is also charged with concealing a corpse and hindering the investigation […]

Comunale, a Hofstra graduate, was stabbed multiple times, strangled and beaten.
His body was found in a shallow grave in Oceanside, New Jersey, after being burned.
Police were led to Rackover and Dilione after reviewing surveillance cameras which picked up Rackover’s car. His EZ Pass also showed him traveling through tolls which led to the site.
They first threw the body out the window of Rackover’s second floor apartment and left it in a garbage bag outside the building but thought better of their plan, drove down to New Jersey, after unsuccessfully attempting to set the remains on fire, buried it.

Joey’s father Pat Comunale [photo], broke down in tears during jury deliberations on Friday. Neither Dilione nor Rackover deserved to walk the streets, ever, again he later said 

A jury convicted him of second degree murder, hindering prosecution and concealment of a human corpse.
Dillione’s trial is yet to begin. He is due in court in 2019.
The conviction comes days after the jury was told by the son of Good Day New York anchor Rosanna Scott that Rackover confessed to the killing in 2016.
Related:  Cops arrest celebrity jeweler’s son, James Rackover and his pal Lawrence Dilione, in the stabbing death of Connecticut man, Joseph Comunale, who vanished from New York party and was found in shallow grave in Jersey Shore
Police arrest James Rackover,  25, the son of a celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover, and a second suspect Thursday for the savage stabbing death of Joseph Comunale, Joseph […]
Louis Ruggiero testified that Rackover confessed not only to killing him but to driving his body out to New Jersey afterwards then coming home and ordering pancakes from a diner.
‘I slit his throat and I stabbed him and we wrapped the body up in a comforter and threw it out the window so the cameras wouldn’t see,’ Louis Ruggiero recalled James Rackover saying.
‘James looked at me and said, ‘I did something really bad,’ Louis Ruggiero testified Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Ruggiero, the District Attorney’s star witness in the murder trial, said Rackover told him that Lawrence Dilione, one of the other men in his apartment during the incident, got into a fight with Comunale and knocked him unconscious.

‘I gave [Comunale] a few lickings as well, and I didn’t want a dead body in my living room, so I slit his throat and I stabbed him and then we wrapped the body up in comforters and threw the body out the window,’ Ruggiero testified, quoting what Rackover told him.

The attack, Dilione said, happened after a fight over cigarettes.
Claiming that he was responsible only for punching the young man, Dilione told a court in March how he watched Rackover stab him once the fight got out of hand.
‘I turned around and that’s when I saw the knife being pulled out of Joey’s head,’ he said.
Dilione claimed that the fight started when Comunale accused him of taking free alcohol and drugs from him and Rackover without paying his way.
He allegedly said: ‘James is bringing cocaine, I’ve got cigarettes, what the f*** are you bringing to the table.’
It was previously reported the fight was over Comunale rejecting the pair and their sexual advances.
Furious, he lunged at him and began beating him, he said.
‘I said, ‘I’ll take the blame,’ but he said ‘Look at my hands,’ and they were covered in blood. At that point [Rackover] started to strangle him,’ he said.

The murder happened at Rackover’s Upper East Side home in Nov, 2016. Cops found traces of Comunale’s blood in Rackover’s condo and on a luggage cart that Rackover was seen using the next evening. 

He had been arrested multiple times for burglary, armed robbery, and drug possession before Comunale’s death.
At some stage afterwards, he met Jeffery Rackover and moved to New York City where they each held apartments in the same building.
‘Jeffrey never had children, he developed a relationship with this young man and introduced him to his family,’ said private detective Bo Dietl who’d known the jeweler for 32 years.
‘Jimmy was a troubled young man and Jeffrey hoped to get him back on his feet.’
Jeffrey even got James a job at Willis Towers Watson insurance company along with his own apartment.
‘Jeffrey was on the 32nd floor and James on the fourth floor,’ said Dietl.
‘They first met, I believe, at a health club about three-and-a-half years ago, Dietl revealed in 2016. ‘Jimmy moved into the apartment about a year ago. Jimmy changed his name to James Rackover because Jeffrey liked this kid so much.’

Amateurish attempts at coverup: A trove of evidence was found dumped in the garbage [photo] near Rackover’s home in Manhattan

During Rackover’s trial in October, NYPD Detective Michelle Gangi, showed jurors a gray sweatshirt had blood stains on the sleeves [photo]. It smelled strongly of bleach

Comunale’s father claimed 57-year-old Jeffrey Rackover provided cleaning supplies to James and claimed the pair were in a sexual relationship.
The lawsuit also says that Jeffrey let James borrow his Mercedes-Benz to dispose of the victim’s dismembered remains on the Jersey Shore.
Jeffrey’s lawyer John Rosenberg denied the claims in the lawsuit and said that the suit was ‘grasping at straws’.
The murder happened at Rackover’s Upper East Side home in November 2016