Crime & Safety

Jeannot Takes His Life After Murder Conviction

Deer Park man hangs himself in East Meadow prison hours after jury finds him guilty in shooting death of Robert Calabrese Jr. of Long Beach.

Herve Jeannot, committed suicide and left a note in the Nassau County Correctional facility later that night.

A corrections officer was making his rounds in the East Meadow prison when he found Jeannot hanging from a bed sheet in his cell, said Dt. John Azzata of the Nassau County Police Department.

"He requested assistance of additional officers," Azzata said of the corrections officers. "The officers assisted him in removing Mr. Jeannot."

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The officers called 911 and a Nassau County police ambulance transported Jeannot to the neighboring Nassau County Medical Center on Hempstead Turnpike, where he was pronounced dead at about 12:30 a.m. on Wednesday, according to Azzata.

"It is believed Mr. Jeannot succumbed to his injuries from the hanging that will be determined absolutely by an autopsy that is ongoing right now," Azzata said at a press conference at police headquarters in Mineola at noon on Wednesday.    

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Yesterday, a jury convicted the 29-year-old Deer Park man of first-degree murder in the 2004 shooting death of a Robert Calabrese, Jr. of Long Beach over a gambling debt.

After the first two trials ended in hung juries, Jeannot was convicted in August 2006 and sentenced to life in prison without parole. But in February 2009, an appellate court tossed out the verdict based on errors made by his former defense attorney, which denied him a fair trial.

While Azzata declined to discuss the contents of a note that Jeannot left behind, he made no reference to anything pertaining to his conviction. "He did not mention any criminality involved in that case," Azzata said. 

Azzata said that upon Jeannot's appeal, he was transferred from a prison in upstate to the Nassau County prison while he awaited trial, and that rounds are made at the prison every 15 minutes. Patch's calls to the prison went unanswered.

"When anyone takes their own life, it's not a good situation," Azzata said when questioned about the suicide's impact on law enforcement officials.


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