Summary: Attorney Jesse Smith was bludgeoned to death by his roommate, protégé, and paralegal, Quentin Capobianco this Monday.
Queens Attorney Jesse Smith, who formerly worked for Forest Hills firm Morton Povman, P.C., before striking it out on his own, has abruptly ended his high-flying lifestyle of expensive suits and fancy apartment living in Astoria. The 29-year-old attorney recently died at Elmhurst General Hospital, after his roommate, paralegal, and protégé, 18-year-old Quentin Capobianco, struck him repeatedly in the head with a hammer this Monday.
The dispute, it seems, regards a dispute over heroin, though other sources claim Capobianco was retaliating after Smith held him captive for eight hours in attempt to force Capobianco to liquidate some stock to pay for wall damage. Allegedly Smith threatened his younger roommate with a shotgun, and once he made his way free, Capobianco struck him with a hammer.
Whether the dispute was over stocks or heroin, Capobianco has since been charged with second-degree murder and possession of a weapon (the hammer).
“They were both really fancy, wearing expensive clothes,” said their dry cleaner, Sylvia Barron, 46. “Jesse talked directly, Quentin was kind of quiet. My God, that’s terrible” she said when she learned of the murder.
Smith previously worked for Povman, handling personal injury cases and complex medical malpractice suits, before deciding to strike out on his own and make his own career, an adventure that reportedly didn’t go as well as planned.
“He said he used to work for other people but now he worked for himself,” said Tony Wang, 31, owner of City Sliquors, where Smith bought champagne for his clients, when his business was doing well.
“When he first came in everything seemed good but then later he came in and said business was not going well. One day I saw him standing outside smoking a cigarette, just staring up at the sky. He just didn’t look right.”
News Source: New York Post