Mother wants to know why her son was killed

Yolanda de Jesus of Central Islip now knows who has been charged with her son's death. She still wants to know why he was killed.

De Jesus, whose son, Louis Calixto Jr., 19, was found stabbed to death in a burned house in Central Islip last August, said Thursday she believes he was in the wrong place at the wrong time when two men allegedly broke into the home of a friend, Mykier Daniels, 28, and her sister, Katrice, 31.

But she said she does not know whether her son was targeted to be killed.

"We have a lot of questions. We don't want to speculate," de Jesus said outside of court, where one of the men was arraigned Thursday. "We want to know what the truth is so we can go on with our lives."

Prosecutors said Hasan Vaughan, 33, of Central Islip, killed Calixto and Mykier and Katrice Daniels on Aug. 11, and then, with another man, Thomas Singletary, 33, of Central Islip, burned down the sisters' Hickory Street home. Calixto and Mykier Daniels showed signs of being tortured, prosecutors said.

Vaughan pleaded not guilty Thursday in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead to one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of second-degree arson. He was ordered held without bail by State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs.

Singletary pleaded not guilty last week to second-degree arson.

Vaughan and Singletary burned the house to cover up the "horrible, gruesome murders," Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said. Both men were burned as they fled, he said.

Mykier Daniels regularly drove Calixto to school at the New York Automotive and Diesel Institute in Queens, de Jesus said. Calixto, who wanted to be an auto mechanic like his father, Louis Calixto Sr., was helping Mykier Daniels move to Mastic, she said.

He had gone to the house for a ride to school when he was killed, de Jesus said. Before Vaughan's arraignment, she said her son had no relationship with either suspect.

"I can't see my son causing so much anger that anyone would do that to him," she said. " . . . We bring kids in this world and we don't expect them to clash with each other."After the arraignment, she said Vaughan came to her house a month before the slayings and asked to see her son. She declined to elaborate.