From the archives: Conviction in Pius case set Aside; Fourth trial possible for jailed defendant in 1979 teen slaying

This article was originally published in Newsday on Aug. 30, 2002

Yet again, the conviction of one of the men found guilty of killing 13-year-old John Pius by stuffing rocks down his throat 23 years ago has been reversed.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that within 90 days Thomas Ryan, 41, must get a fourth trial or be set free. If Ryan is tried again, it will be the eighth trial in the case.

"It's just terribly upsetting," said Timothy Mazzei, the former prosecutor who won Ryan's last conviction. "It's a travesty. These cases should have been over a long time ago."

Pius' parents, who now live in Florida, could not be reached for comment yesterday. Mazzei, now in private practice in Hauppauge, said when he spoke Wednesday with Barbara Pius, John's mother, she was so upset she could hardly talk.

In 1979, police said, Ryan, then 17, Robert Brensic, 17, Peter Quartararo, 15, and Michael Quartararo, 14, killed Pius near a Smithtown elementary school because they thought he would turn them in for stealing a minibike. The four were convicted based in part on confessions police say Peter Quartararo gave them soon after the crime.

But appellate courts later ruled the confessions were coerced by police and were inadmissible in court.

"It is the unreliable confession of Peter Quartararo, with its varying accusations against the other three boys, and the [district attorney's office's] insistence on attempting to introduce it ... that has caused the many reversals, mistrials, retrials ... that have occurred in the cases of these four accused," Judge Rosemary Pooler wrote for the three-judge panel that decided the case.

At Ryan's 1990 retrial, the appellate court said Suffolk County Court Judge Thomas Mallon erred when he allowed a detective to testify that he told other detectives to read Ryan his rights immediately after hearing from the detectives interrogating Peter Quartararo.

The jury did not hear that Quartararo had confessed, but the federal appellate court ruled the jury was left "with nothing to conclude other than that Peter had accused Ryan."

That is a violation of Ryan's constitutional right to confront his accuser, the court ruled. Because Quartararo was not called as a witness, Ryan's attorney had no way to challenge his accusation, the court said.

"The appeals bureau of our office is studying [Wednesday's] lengthy decision," said Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota. "Our options are open." They include appealing the case to the full Second Circuit or to the U.S. Supreme Court, or retrying Ryan, Spota said.

The Pius murder was the last case Spota handled during his first tenure with the district attorney's office. Then chief of the office's Major Offense bureau, Spota won the first convictions against the Quartararo brothers. Peter was never retried after his conviction was reversed; Michael is still in prison after being convicted at a second trial.

Another way to conclude the case is to reach a plea deal, according to attorneys close to the case. Brensic pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 1988 after his murder conviction was thrown out, and was paroled not long afterward.

"I have no idea whether the client would accept it," said Ryan's appellate attorney, Lawrence Kamin of Manhattan. "This is a case where a lot of people have suffered over a long time. I think it's time to just put this all behind us."

Ryan has spent more than 18 years in prison.

Kamin said how the case proceeds is in Spota's hands.

Mazzei, noting Spota's familiarity with the case, said he'll be comfortable with whatever decision Spota makes.

He said it would be difficult to retry the case 23 years after it happened.

"It was tough to retry in 1990, and that was after only 11 years," Mazzei said.

Even so, if it came to that, Mazzei said prosecutors still would be able to use statements Ryan made to his then-girlfriend. At the last trial, Anne Della Piana testified that Ryan told her, "You can't love someone that took someone else's life."