Brian Cordovano charged with murder in 2022 Selden double homicide following robbery attempt

A Ronkonkoma man was attempting to steal from an associate when he allegedly killed two men in "a coldblooded execution" in Selden last year, Suffolk prosecutors said Thursday.

Brian Cordovano, 48, pleaded not guilty Thursday before Judge Stephen Braslow in Riverhead to an indictment that includes a top charge of first-degree murder in the deaths of Ian Saalfield, 45, of Lake Grove, and Robert Julian, 58, of Selden.

“This was an alleged coldblooded execution of two men who made the unfortunately fatal decision to befriend this defendant,” Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said in a statement following the man's arraignment Thursday evening.

Cordovano was charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, and possession of a weapon in the second degree. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Prosecutors said Cordovano was the last person seen with alleged victim Ian Saalfield on the night he disappeared. 

Family members who attended Cordovano's arraignment said Saalfield had offered to give his longtime associate a ride that night.

“My son tried to help [Cordovano] better his life a little bit,” Saalfield’s mother, Karen Sepe, told Newsday. “He never came home.”

Both men’s bodies were found dead inside Julian’s Hollywood Avenue home late on the evening of May 3, 2022, a single gunshot wound to each of their heads, police said.

On Thursday, prosecutors outlined the events that led investigators to their discovery, which Tierney described as an attempt by Cordovano to “steal property from one of the victims.”

Family members said the two victims did not know each other, but both had a relationship with Cordovano.

Cordovano became a suspect on the evening the bodies were found after he overdosed on cocaine at the Rodeway Inn in Ronkonkoma, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Frank Schroeder told Braslow Thursday.

Motel staff reported that Cordovano had been driving a silver Toyota, which investigators learned was registered to Julian, leading officers to check his home around 10:45 p.m. on May 2, 2022, Schroeder said in court.

Saalfield, a father of three children, was last seen by his wife, Erica, on April 25, 2022.

When he failed to return home, his wife, whom Schroeder credited with helping investigators solve the case, reported him missing the next morning.

One week later, earlier on the same day his body was found, Saalfield’s white Lexus was located in a parking lot in Holtsville, Schroeder said.

Sepe told reporters outside the courtroom that Cordovano’s arrest shows that “the justice system is better than you know," thanking detectives for solving the case.

Schroeder gave an indication of evidence that could be used at trial, including witnesses he said saw Cordovano driving Julian’s car on the night of the murder an admission to owning a gun that ballistics evidence suggests was used in the murder.

Braslow remanded Cordovano, who has three prior felony convictions, to the Suffolk County Jail Thursday.

Cordovano’s court-appointed attorney, Christopher Gioe of Hauppauge, said his client maintains his innocence.

“He basically said, ‘I didn’t do this,’” Gioe told reporters.

At an earlier arraignment Thursday, Cordovano pleaded not guilty to felony and misdemeanor drug charges before Judge Rosann Orlando in Central Islip in an unrelated case when he was arrested on Feb. 15, after a traffic stop for allegedly possessing fentanyl and cocaine. That case was adjourned to February 21.

Cordovano also has pending drug and forgery charges in Suffolk County dating back to September 2021 and weapons and drug charges pending in Nassau County Criminal court since September 2022.

Schroeder said Cordovano’s first drug conviction dates back to 1997 and earned him a sentence of 3 years to life in prison.

Families for both victims and Cordovano attended the arraignments Thursday but declined to talk to reporters.

Saalfield’s wife was consoled by family members as she sobbed watching the second arraignment unfold from the second row of Braslow’s courtroom.

Saalfield was described by his parents as a construction worker, who loved his family and was generous to others.

“He was loved by a lot of people,” his mother said.

By Grant Parpan

grant.parpan@newsday.com@GrantParpan

Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.