By James DeWeese
Police discovered Russo, a grandmother and devout churchgoer, shortly after 8 p.m. on Aug. 6 bound, beaten and wedged under a mattress in her Cornish Avenue home, the victim of an apparent burglary. She was pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital Medical Center the following morning.Mourners gathered Aug. 10 to pay their respects at a well-attended funeral Mass at St. Bartholomew's Church in Corona. By then police were already closing in on Robert Marshall, a homes less man with previous arrests in Puerto Rico and Florida.Marshall was arrested Aug. 10 after police matched his fingerprint to one left where Russo was beaten and robbed, according to law enforcement sources.Marshall was inside Russo's corner row house, rifling through her possessions when she arrived in the late afternoon, according to the criminal complaint filed against him by the Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.Marshall told investigators he had demanded money from Russo when she surprised him, the criminal complaint said.”The defendant 'manhandled' the victim, which caused a bruise to the victim's head, then put the victim on the ground, tied the victim's hands and feet with cord, then placed a mattress on top of her and left the victim under the mattress,” the criminal complaint said.Russo, who neighbors said made the rounds of her area not with the aid of a walker but with a small cart she often used to do shopping for older residents, died of blunt force trauma to the head, arms and torso, as well as a compression of the neck, said Helen Borkoff, a spokeswoman for the city medical examiner.Marshall was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, burglary and robbery. A grand jury voted to indict Marshall last week, and he was being held without bail pending arraignment in Queens Supreme Court within the next two weeks, Brown said.Marshall's lawyer, Gary Alexion, did not return phone calls requesting comment.”A Queens County grand jury has voted an indictment for murder after carefully reviewing heartbreaking evidence of a brutal crime in which a frail and helpless 88-year-old grandmother was viciously beaten and left for dead by an assailant who stole $20, ate a sandwich, took a shower and fled,” Brown said.Law enforcement sources said the arrest was not Marshall's first brush with the law. Marshall had one arrest in Puerto Rico and a series in Florida on charges ranging from aggravated assault and kidnapping to sexual assault and drug possession, law enforcement sources said.The investigation, which netted a suspect in fewer than four days after the burglary, was conducted jointly by the Queens Homicide Task Force and the 110th Precinct Detective Squad. Detectives Billy Milan of Queens Homicide and Edwin Romero of the 110th Precinct headed up the investigation under the supervision of Lts. Richard Belluci and Stephen Jaworksi, respectively.Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly issued a statement praising the detectives' work.”I want to commend our detectives for the swift apprehension of the suspect in the brutal murder of Antoinette Russo,” Kelly said. “It was outstanding, professional work by all involved.”Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timesledger.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
