UPDATE - Former Oceanport Mayor's Son Charged In Connecticut Man's Grisly Murder: NYPD

by Brendan Kriesel (Patch National Staff)

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — A third man has been arrested and charged in connection with the murder of Joseph Comunale, a Connecticut man who was stabbed 15 times while partying at the Upper East Side apartment of a star jeweler's surrogate son and buried in a shallow New Jersey grave.

Max Gemma, 29, was charged Tuesday with hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence. Gemma joins two other men, 25-year-old James Rackover and 28-year-old Lawrence Dilione, as suspects in the high-profile murder that occurred in Rackover's condo in the glitzy Grand Sutton tower — located on located on East 59th Street near First Avenue.

Gemma, 29, is the son of former mayor Gordon Gemma. His residence was listed as a home on Seneca Place owned by his father, according to app.com.

Gemma was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with physical evidence, according to a statement from the New York Police Department.

Rackover — the surrogate son of jeweler-to-the-stars Jeffrey Rackover — and Dilione were arraigned in November.

"One or both of these people committed a murder," Assistant District Attorney Antoinette Carter said during that arraignment.

Unlike Rackover and Dilione, Gemma has not been charged with concealment of a human corpse. Prosecutors have not yet charged anyone with murder, but an NYPD spokesman told Patch in November that Rackover and Dilione are expected to be charged with second-degree murder.

Gemma's exact role, if he did indeed play any, in the death of Comunale and the disposal of his body is currently unknown.

Dilione met Comunale while out partying the night of Saturday, Nov. 12 and brought him and three other women to a 4 a.m. party at Rackover's apartment.

Comunale's body was dug from a shallow grave in a remote, wooded area of Oceanport, N.J. His body had at least 15 stab wounds, a broken pelvis and burn marks, according to police and the DA's office.

The wounds suggested that Comunale was killed with a knife and that his body had been dropped from a high distance. A large duffel bag was discovered near the burial site, according to the DA's office.

According to the DA's office one of the suspects, Dilione, admitted to police that he and another man took Comunale's body to New Jersey. Dilione's LinkedIn profilelists him as the owner of Shore Point Roofing, a business located in the next town over from Oceanport.

"We took Joey's body to Oceanport, N.J. and we buried it in a vacant lot," Dilione told investigators.
Image: Patch file photo.