CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (AP) - Less than two weeks before completing parole, a man stabbed to death his girlfriend and her 12-year-daughter with a razor knife at an apartment in Geneva, a prosecutor said Friday.
John Brown, 35, who served 2 1/2 years in prison for violently shaking his infant daughter in 2003, was indicted Friday on first-degree and second-degree murder charges in the slayings of Helen Buchel, 34, and her daughter, Brittany Passalacqua, at their home in Geneva the night of Nov. 19.
Buchel's 14-year-old son, Brandon, discovered the bodies the following afternoon.
"Obviously, it's very, very difficult for him," Ontario County District Attorney R. Michael Tantillo said.
Brown, who is unemployed, displayed no emotion at his arraignment and a not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf. He was ordered held on $250,000 cash bail. If convicted, he could be sentenced to life in prison.
Calls to defense attorney Robert Zimmerman went unanswered Friday.
Brown, who wears his 18-inch-long hair in a weaved ponytail, lives in Palmyra, about 20 miles from Geneva in western New York. He was arrested the day the bodies were found. No other details about the circumstances of the slayings have been disclosed.
Prison officials say Brown drew a three-year sentence in January 2004 for causing serious physical injury to his infant daughter in March 2003. She has since recovered, but the nature of her injuries were not disclosed.
Brown got out of prison in June 2006, but returned in March 2008 on a parole violation for illegal drug use and associating with someone who has a criminal record, officials say. Released again in February, his parole term was due to expire on Dec. 2.
He was jailed for two weeks in September for taking Buchel's car without permission and told he could no longer live with her.
From November 20th, 2009
Geneva (WSYR-TV) – Geneva Police have released the names of a mother and daughter who were stabbed to death. They have also arrested and charged a man with their murders.
The victims were Helen Buchel, 34, and her daughter Brittany Passalaqua, 12. Both were killed by knife wounds in their second floor apartment at 148 North Main Street in Geneva at approximately 3:35 p.m. this evening. Police would not say how many times they had been stabbed or if they had the murder weapon.
Police say they arrested and charged John Edward Brown, 35, from Palmyra with a parole violation and one count of murder in the first degree between three and four hours after the incident was initially reported. District Attorney Mike Tantillo explained there is only one charge of murder because of a specific subdivision of the law. "He kills one person and in the course of that criminal transaction kills another person, so even though there were two victims, it would only be charged as one count," he said.
Police say Brown was Buchel’s boyfriend, and that the incident began with a domestic dispute. Brown was on parole for assaulting an infant in 2003.
Buchel is survived by a son.
Brown was arraigned tonight and is being held in Ontario County Jail. He will return to court on Monday.
