The Carnegie Deli Murders

THE CARNEGIE DELI MURDERS

Today, we are going to New York City… The Big Apple… The City That Never Sleeps…The City of Dreams… The Melting Pot… The Concrete Jungle…  New York can be placed alongside Los Angeles, Paris, and Tokyo as cities that are usually considered to be of cultural significance.  Generally speaking, these cities are thought to be on the cutting edge of new trends whether it be in pop culture, technology, music, theater, or food.  

Speaking of food, NYC is home to world renowned restaurants.  Since 2010, New York City has required restaurants to post letter grades that correspond to scores received from sanitary inspections.  Grade cards must be posted where they can easily be seen by people passing by.  The NYC letter grades are an A, B, or C system. An A indicates that there are most likely infractions on a technical or non-critical infraction, like improper lighting or maybe a can of food was found with a dent in it.  When a C is given, we are entering into more dangerous and well.. gross infractions that can cause serious sickness to people who might eat there.  These can range from improper temperatures of stored goods to evidence of rodent infestation.  So that’s just a little tip from KQ to you if you find yourself in NYC looking for a place to eat. 

When it comes to your more fine dining restaurants, and chefs that operate them, there is one rating system that most strive for, the Michelin Star.  When you hear Michelin, you probably think of the company that makes tires.  Well, the same company started to print guides for traveling back in the early 1900s.  Back then, there were few cars on the road, so in an effort to boost car sales, which would then boost tire sales, they started these guides which had maps, restaurant locations, hotels, tips on tire repair and replacement, along with locations of mechanics.  The guides talked about places that were a little further away, so it would make sense to have a car to get there.  The first guides covered France, but soon expanded to include various countries nearby as well.  Then they grew more and more, and eventually started to give “stars” to restaurants that gave an exceptional experience. Ove time, the Michelin Star has become the pinnacle of what a chef and restaurateur strives for.  While the star is awarded to the restaurant and not the chef, having one awarded to a restaurant / kitchen you are in charge of is a massive boost to the career of a chef.  

While a Michelin Star will boost a restaurant’s reputation globally, there are countless landmark, iconic establishments in New York City.  These can range from a fine dining trip back to the 1960s at “The Grill,” to a laid back burger joint like JG Melon.  There are countless bodega’s that sling out sandwiches to order, but one of the most iconic places in the city is Katz’s Deli.  This is the deli they filmed the iconic “I’ll have what she’s having” scene in When Harry Met Sally.  It’s been around since the late 1800s, and in the early 1900s changed its name to Katz’s.  

A similar deli was the Carnegie Deli, which operated in NYC for decades, the main branch opened in 1937, and they officially shut down business on Dec 31st 2016, after nearly 80 years.  Like Katz’s, Carnegie was a little taste of that old school diner style food and service that many people kept coming back for over and over.  The walls were covered with photos and autographs of celebrities ranging from film, tv, and theater actors / actresses, to athletes from different sports.  Today, they sell merchandise on their website as well as shipping food world wide.  They will occasionally have a pop up style restaurant at an event which is always a welcomed sight to people in attendance.  

Today, we are going to go back to the year 2001, to an apartment that was a few floors above the iconic location of the Carnegie Deli.  Specifically, we are going to May 10th, around 7:30 PM.  Detectives were initially told that they have a quintuple homicide at Carnegie Deli.  When the police got there, it was basically a madhouse.  Not only did they have the restaurant which was a tourist attraction itself, but it was right next to the theater where David Letterman filmed his show, another landmark in NYC.  

There were people waiting outside just to get into the restaurant to eat, but officers quickly closed down the restaurant for the night and kept the patrons there.  They wanted to talk to everyone who was in the building.  They wanted as many witnesses as they could get.  When detectives arrived, they were told that there were 2 people who were DOA, and three likely, meaning the other three were not expected to survive.  

The apartment belonged to Jennifer Stahl.  That evening she had four guests over with her.  She had called her friend and hair stylist, Anthony Veader.  Spoiler alert, he survived the chaos of the apartment that night.   Anthony has worked in the entertainment industry as a hair stylist on movies and television shows alike.  His credits include Men In Black, Sex and the City, Sons of Anarchy, and The Sopranos to name a few.  He still works in the entertainment industry as well as serving several private clients.  He is on call for many of his clients.  A friend of his said that it might be midnight and he would get a call.  Next thing, he’s out of bed and out the door to go do the haircut.  He went to Jannifer’s apartment that night to give her a trim. 

Rosemond Dane was also there that night as well.  She survived as well and had just arrived in NYC that day with her boyfriend Charles “Trey” Helliwell.  They had come to the city from St. John in the Virgin Islands for the wedding of a friend.  Rosemond made and sold jewelry in stores she owns as well as imports from Indonesia.  Trey was originally from Harwich, MA.  There, he had started a music production company, but moved to the Virgin Islands in 1998 where he worked towards getting his captain’s license so he could follow his true passion, sailing. 

Also there that night was Stephen King, who lived in NYC, but was originally from Michigan.  He was an avid musician and skilled at playing the trombone as well as other instruments, including the guitar.  He recorded his own rock music for his band, and had brought his guitar with him to Jennifer’s apartment that night.  

Jennifer Stahl was an avid dancer and musician, well a lover of the arts in general.  She actually appeared in Dirty Dancing as a background dancer, and had moved to NYC to pursue her dream dance and music stardom.  While she went on auditions and did whatever she could to make it in the industry, she never caught the big break that could launch her career.  So, she transitioned her aspirations from dancing to focus more on making music.  Jennifer built a small studio in her apartment and recorded music herself while also helping friends and other people in the industry work there to record their music as well.  

If there’s one thing we know about New York City, even twenty years ago, it is that rent prices were and are completely out of this world.  Tack on the fact that Jennifer’s apartment was in a very popular area of the city, and you can only imagine how much she was paying.  She did make money renting out her studio space and helping other musicians, but to supplement it, Jennifer turned to selling marijuana.  She would sell to friends or people she knew from friends, but she was very selective about who she dealt with.  She wasn’t just selling “skunk weed,” and she dealt in high quality plants.  Her customers were usually from the surrounding theaters or people in the art scene in general. 

At a certain point, a friend of hers told her that she needed to get some protection for when she knew she would be busy, and Jennifer would pay people she knew to be a bouncer essentially and just work security at the door when people rang her bell.  The evening of the murders, Stephen King was there serving as her security guard.  

Around 7:30 PM on May 10th, the 911 call came in about a shooting above the deli.  The call was actually made by Anthony.  He said that he had been shot and that he didn’t know if anyone else was alive.  Very quickly, the police arrived because a shooting in that neighborhood was beyond uncommon.  As they were going up the stairs to the apartment, they heard a woman talking / shouting / calling for help.  They couldn’t really make out what she was saying, but just by the tone of her voice, they knew she was going through something.  At this point, they rounded the corner of some steps and saw a woman standing at the top of the next flight of stairs.  She was covered in blood, including her face and hair.  She had her hands behind her back.  They didn’t know who she was… was she a victim or a perpetrator.  Was she just a decoy to get them to come closer while someone else laid in wait to open fire?  They ordered her to show her hands but she didn’t.  As they told her again, she fainted.  When she hit the ground, they saw that her hands were bound behind her with duct tape, and the officers rushed to offer aid.  

Officers entered the apartment and first came to Anthony who was asking for help.  They then found two bodies laying in pools of blood, these were the bodies of Trey and Stephen.  They moved to clear the apartment and came to the recording studio, where they found Jennifer still alive, but struggling to breathe.  

All five were bound with duct tape and had been shot in the head.  Anthony survived because the bullet didn’t penetrate his skull.  It entered and followed the curvature of his skull before exiting.  He, Rosemond, and Jennifer were all rushed to the hospital.  At this point, the police didn’t even know who anyone was.  One of the detectives said that of course solving the case is their top priority, but at that point, they had to identify these people and go from there.  They talked with some employees of the deli and learned that the apartment belonged to Jennifer.  An employee said that he had seen two black men running away around the time everything happened, one of them had dreadlocks. The two men got in a red car and sped away.  

So that’s where they started.  They were able to identify everyone, and talk with friends of Jennifer’s.  By this time, Jennifer had passed away at the hospital, Rosemund and Anthony were miraculously clinging to life.  They told detectives about Jennifer’s boyfriend, who was a drummer.  He was a black man with dreadlocks.  They also told them about their relationship and said that at times it could get physical.  In fact, Jennifer had a brace on her arm / hand because she had surgery a couple of days before she was murdered.  She and her boyfriend had gotten into an argument and he grabbed her wrist / hand hard enough to break one of her fingers.  When the news broke about the shooting, there were cameras all over as Jennifer was taken on a stretcher out of the apartment, and seeing the brace was how her friends knew that it was her apartment everyone was talking about. 

So, detectives quickly tracked down her boyfriend and talked with him.  He was able to give an alibi, which was corroborated by others.  He was nowhere near her apartment when they were murdered. 

Back in the apartment, as investigators are going through everything, they can’t help but notice that Jennifer was selling the weed.  There were jars of flower, scales, everything you would expect.  And they could tell that it was high quality stuff, so it was likely that she was making some pretty good money doing it.  They discovered that her clientele was varied, friends and artists, rappers, producers, people from all walks of life.  

So at this point, they’ve ruled out her boyfriend and in talking with friends learned that Rosemund and Trey were just in the apartment that night visiting because they were in town. Trey had called his sister earlier in the day and joked that he was back on the mainland and was going to try to get up to Boston to see her.  They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Anthony was there to hang out and give Jennifer a haircut, and Stephen was there working the door as security.  He was helping Jen for extra money because he and his girlfriend were expecting a baby.  That was one common thing they heard about Jen, when she knew someone that needed money or some work, she was always going out of her way to help them out.  

In their investigation, detectives discovered that there was a security camera setup on the stairs of the second floor.  They pulled the footage and they saw two black men walking up the stairs before the time of the shooting.  They weren’t rushed or in a hurry, just making their way up.  One had close cut hair, the other had dreads.  When they are seen leaving, you can tell they’re in a hurry, running down, and one is carrying a backpack that they didn’t have earlier.  Investigators now think that this was a robbery or a deal that went bad. They say that it lines up with how Jen was separated from the others, because they likely moved her to make her tell them where she had the drugs and money stashed in the apartment.  Given the close proximity to when the shootings took place, they know that these are the guys they are looking for. 

They released the security video to the public to see if anyone could identify either of the men.  But, progress is slow the first few days after the shooting, until detectives get a call from the hospital.  Anthony and Rosemund have recovered enough to talk with them. 

They told the same story.  They were all in the apartment hanging out and talking, socializing.  Someone rang the buzzer on the door, and Stephen talked with them on the intercom.  The man on the other end said his name was Sean.  Stephen relayed that to Jen and she told him to buzz him up.  Jen knew who this was and trusted him to come up.  When the man came up, he had another man with him and as soon as they walked in, they said they were there to rob Jen and pulled out a gun.  Rosemund tried to run, but was caught by one of the men and pulled back in and thrown against a wall.  

The men told everyone to lay face down and one of them started to duct tape everyone as they lay there while the other took Jen to the studio.  Rosemund said she heard Jen say, “Just take what you want and don’t hurt anybody.”  After that, they heard a gunshot… then another and another.  Since she and Anthony were both face down, they weren’t able to see who was doing the shooting.  Anthony was shot, but still alive and he played dead.  Rosemund was the last to be shot and as she was being shot, she turned her head because she said she wanted to see who was doing this.  That turn of head made the bullet graze her head and saved her life.  The two men immediately left, and Anthony called 911.  Rosemund saw Trey laying dead and ran out of the apartment, and that’s when the police found her on the steps. 

At this point, the police focus on the only name they have, Sean.  They release that name to the public, and one of Jen’s friends immediately makes a connection.  She says that she has a resume from a man named Sean Salley.  Jen told Sean to give this friend his resume because she worked in the music industry and he was looking for work.  They told the detectives and gave them the resume, and they learned that he was a roadie for George Clinton and his band.  They estimated that Salley was the one who purchased weed for the band, and that’s how he knew Jen.  They spoke with members of the band and learned that he had been fired a year or two prior because he assaulted another member of the crew.  

They pulled Sean Salley’s arrest record and learned that he had arrests in other states including arrests for robbery and weapon possession.  They looked at his mugshot and compared it to the footage they had and when comparing it, they had a strong feeling he was one of the men they were looking for.  In the apartment, they had gathered all the duct tape that was used to bind everyone and they had fingerprints on some of it.  They compared that to Salley’s prints on file from his arrests, and it was a match.  From his resume, they got an address in Newark, NJ, but Salley wasn’t there.  They searched the house and didn’t find any evidence from the robbery but did find evidence that Salley was in fact staying there.  They talked with other residents, and one of them, a man named Dwayne, looked like the other man on the security footage.  They ran his name and he was on parole in New Jersey, so they brought him into the station to talk.  They  looked through his wallet and found a piece of paper with the name Dre and a phone number on it. They didn’t know the name, but made a copy of everything in the wallet and put it in the file.  Dwayne denied knowing Salley, but they knew that was a lie, so they kept questioning him, thinking that he was the other man they were looking for. 

As they questioned him further about where he was that day, he said that he was refereeing a basketball game at a local school, which was corroborated by the school.  But, the timestamp on the videotape, there was time for Dwayne to get from the school to Manhattan to commit the murders. At this point, it doesn’t mean that Dwayne is the shooter, but they are taking a strong look at him.  They kept asking him about Salley and where he might have gone after the murders and he says he doesn’t know.  They’re getting nowhere with him, but he did tell them that he had been in Manhattan, and because he was on parole in New Jersey, he needed permission from his PO to cross state lines. His PO asked the detectives to hold him so he could come pick him up. 

As this is going on, officers are canvassing the neighborhood around the house and someone tells them that they know Salley and his friends.  She went to the station with them and watched the footage from the security camera.  She  pointed to the video and said that’s Sean, and that’s Dre. They remembered the paper from Dwayne’s wallet and looked up the phone number.  The name Andre Smith came back. Another detective remembers that name as well.  Earlier in the investigation, they generated a list of names for individuals who had gotten a parking violation in the neighborhood around the time of the shooting. Sure enough, there is a car that got a ticket around that time registered to Andre Smith.  That puts Dre in the vicinity of the crime scene around the time it happened.  They pulled up Dre’s criminal history and found it was littered with robbery and weapons charges.  

They went to the address that Dre had on file, which was only three miles from Salley’s house.  Dre wasn’t there, but his girlfriend was and they asked her to have him call them when he came back. They waited to see what happened.  They expected him to run, but he showed up to the station voluntarily two days later and talked with them.  He denied knowing Salley, and that he was even in the area that night.  He couldn’t provide an alibi.  They showed him the footage from the camera and the crime scene photos and he kept denying everything.  As they’re talking with him other investigators pulled his prints from when he was arrested previously and compared them to other prints found at the crime scene. It was a match.  

Dre still was denying everything, and another detective went in and talked with him.  She made small talk and said he reminded her of her brother.  She said that if he was her brother, she would tell him to be honest and just tell them what he knows, what happened.  As she is talking, his demeanor changes and he becomes engaged in the conversation.  She told him that if Salley says he’s the one who did the shooting, that’s the story they would go with, so it’s best if they hear his story first. Dre said OK, and that he didn’t want it to happen.  He said that Sean messed up.  This wasn’t the way it was supposed to go down. He said that he didn’t have money to provide diapers or milk for his baby, and that was the reason they were going to rob Jen.  Salley came to him and told him he knew of a place in midtown Manhattan that belonged to a hippie chick and she had weed and money.  

Dre says that they planned on only robbing her.  He went into the studio with Jen as Salley duct taped everyone.  But, Salley wasn’t going fast enough so they switched and Dre started to tape everyone up and Salley went into the studio.  As he got to Rosemund, he heard the shot and he asked Salley why he did that and Salley said it was because she knew him.  Then, Salley stood over everyone else and shot them in the back of the head. Then they left and went back to Newark and split up. He told investigators that he didn’t speak with Salley again. 

The top priority now is finding Salley.  They talked with everyone they could think of who might have contact with him and asked them to call if he contacted them. Five weeks passed.  Then a call came in.  Salley had reached out to a friend and asked them to wire him money.  They pulled phone records and discovered that Salley was using a phone card to make his calls, which they traced. They discovered that Salley was making calls from payphones as he traveled from NY to New Orleans. They see that he’s making calls from a local motel and move in.  They went into his room and found items stolen in the robbery as well as his personal belongings like his wallet, but no Salley, they had just missed him.  He stopped using the phone card. 

Detectives reached out to America’s Most Wanted and they aired the case on July 14th, 2001.  Within 20 minutes of the show airing, calls flooded in.  One tip was that Salley was living in a shelter in Miami, Florida.  Investigators called Miami detectives and they went to the shelter to talk with people.  As they were talking with other residents, Salley walked in. He saw them and tried to run, but after a brief chase was found by a police dog.  

Salley admitted to participating in the robbery, but claimed that shooting Jen was an accidental discharge and that Dre had shot the others. He said that he originally went to Dwayne looking for a partner in the robbery, and Dwayne hooked him up with Dre.   

Salley and Dre were both charged with murder in the second degree for the three murders, attempted murder in the second degree for the two survivors, as well as additional weapons and robbery charges.  The trial took place almost a year to the date of the murders.  The men were tried in the same courtroom, each with his own jury.  The court did it this way so the survivors would only have to testify once and go through the pain of reliving this incident the one time.  Each man tried to pin it on the other as they did in their confessions to police.  Salley claimed it was an accidental discharge, but the evidence pointed to the gun being pressed against Jen’s head when she was shot.    

Both men were convicted on all counts and given 120 years to life. 

Hearing the sentence was a huge relief for everyone.  For the families, it was somewhat of a sense of relief.  

Trey’s sisters said that people weren’t jumping up and down and celebrating, but justice was served.  One of the detectives said that you’re pleased that they were found guilty and sent away, but you’re not elated like someone winning the world series or anything like that because someone had to die for this to happen. He says that it’s hard to put into words the feelings that come with cases like this.