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Defense Attorney Robert J. Galluccio told Superior Court Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi yesterday that a tentative deal has been worked out with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to spare Paul Kramer a longer stretch behind bars.
“We’re discussing a sentence to be concurrent with the one he is already serving,” Galluccio said. “I anticipate there will be a resolution to the case.”
DeAvila-Silebi set a Feb. 19 for both sides to return. (STORY, PHOTO: Mary K. Miraglia)
Kramer is charged with fleeing and obstructing justice. He was living with his parents while awaiting what was to have been his October sentencing on an attempted murder conviction after he broke into his ex-boyfriend’s Lodi house in 2009, lay in wait for him and then stabbed the man’s brother.
Weeks short of the sentencing, Kramer cut off his monitoring bracelet and took off in his mother’s car.
The Chrysler PT Cruiser was found a short distance away, in the parking lot at Ravi Continental Cuisine. Police quickly brought in helicopters and tracking dogs, searching a 65-acre quarry in Suffern.
They later operated on the theory that Kramer either hopped a train or caught a ride. They even searched his former Orange County home near Middletown.
A tip led authorities to a bus station in Springfield, Missouri, where they found Kramer.
“So many agencies were involved in locating and capturing [him],” Bergen County Sheriff Michael Saudino told CLIFFVIEW PILOT, which broke the story of Kramer’s arrest.
Saudino credited not only his own officers but detectives from the New Jersey State Police and Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli’s office, as well as police in Mahwah, Ramapo, Suffern and the village of Tuxedo – and the Missouri State Police, who were waiting when Kramer got off the bus.
“It would not have happened if not for them,” Saudino said.
Kramer waived extradition and was returned to Bergen County in November.
After their breakup, Eric Beresky called Kramer’s mother and told her that Kramer, who until then had been in the closet, was homosexual and had AIDS.
Kramer, called by his mother, immediately headed to Lodi and bought latex gloves and a set of steak knives in a local supermarket, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Carol Novey-Catuogno said.
He broke into Beresky’s home and waited nearly two hours before attacking Beresky’s brother when he came home — stabbing him several times until the handle broke off the knife, the assistant prosecutor said.
Authorities later traced Kramer to a Poughkeepsie hotel.
DeAvila-Silebi originally said she was inclined to sentence Kramer below the maximum 15 years. But that changed after he took off.
Kramer, who turned 34 last Thursday, must serve nearly 13 years of his term before he can be considered for parole.
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