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Freeport resident John Pierotti, 65, was convicted by a jury of two counts each of murder, and criminal possession of a weapon for a double murder outside a Baldwin bar in 1998, Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced.
Singas noted that the trial began on Monday, Feb. 10 and the jury deliberated for two days before announcing the guilty verdict. When he is sentenced on Wednesday, April 29, Pierotti will face life in prison without the possibility of parole.
On Dec. 23, 1998, Pierotti shot two men, 36-year-old Gerard Kennedy and 41-year-old Willis Frost, outside of the Dragger Inn in Baldwin.
Singas said that Pierotti arrived at the bar at approximately 1 a.m. that night armed with a handgun and ammunition. When his two victims left the bar, they were sitting outside in a parked van when Pierotti approached the driver’s side window and instigated a fight.
Pierotti shot Frost in the chest at point-blank range and then struck Kennedy in the eye as he attempted to run away. Pierotti was arrested in February 1999 following an investigation by the Nassau County Police Department.
Following his arrest, Pierotti was convicted of murder in 2000, but two decades later, his conviction was overturned by a federal appellate court due to claims that the defendant could not hear during his trial.
He was once again found guilty at his retrial.
“The defendant ruthlessly shot two men at point-blank range outside a Baldwin bar in 1998,” Singas said in a statement. “The families of Gerard Kennedy and Willis Frost have shown tremendous resolve sitting through this retrial, nearly 20 years after John Pierotti was initially convicted for murdering their loved ones.
"I thank them for their patience during this ordeal and hope that today’s verdict finally brings them the closure that they deserve.”
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