How Ecuadorian illegal alien murdered Adrienne Shelly

VFR’s earlier entries on the murder of film actress Adrienne Shelly in her Greenwich Village apartment/office in November 2006 by Ecuadorian illegal alien Diego Pillco (here and here) reflected the false story the suspect had told the police, that he and Shelly had an argument about noise prior to his attack on her. It was nothing like that, and I neglected to post the correct information when it came out at Pillco’s trial in February 2008. Here is Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau’s account of what Pillco admitted in court.

In court today, PILLCO admitted that on November 1, 2006 at 15 Abingdon Square, he rode up in the elevator with the victim, Adrienne Levine (Shelly). The defendant noticed that the victim was carrying a big black purse and observed what floor button she pressed. PILLCO rode up one extra floor in the elevator and walked down the stairs to Levine’s floor. The door to Levine’s apartment was ajar; the defendant entered, saw the black bag, and took out her wallet. The victim confronted him and reached for the phone to call the police. PILLCO grabbed the phone and a fight ensued. The defendant further admitted that he covered the victim’s mouth and nose with his hand until she passed out. He then took a sheet, choked her to death, and made it look like a suicide.

(Note: I found the Morgenthau statement in the Village Voice. However, there is no need to click on the link to the Voice, as the relevant text is quoted here, and the page at the Voice has the kind of filth you would expect to see there.)

Also, check out again how Time’s movie reviewer Richard Schickel called the murder just another “stupefyingly banal” crime.

How could Shelly’s murder have been avoided? Obviously, she should have closed her office door. Beyond that, she could have carried some kind of self-defense spray like Mace, which is legal in New York State. She could have owned a firearm. Pillco’s employer could have refused to hire him without proof of U.S. residency status. The U.S. government could have enforced our laws and kept illegal aliens out of the country.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 04, 2009 01:29 PM | Send