Landlord testifies in Central Islip murder case

One of the victims in a Central Islip triple murder told her friend and landlord she was afraid and nervous in the days before she was killed, the landlord testified Tuesday.

However, Katrice Daniels never said she was afraid of her boyfriend, Hasan Vaughan, one of the two men on trial for her murder, Kim Graves said during questioning by Vaughan's attorney, William Keahon.

In fact, about a month before Daniels was killed, she wrongly told Graves that her boyfriend had been shot in the head on the next block, Graves testified.

Daniels told Graves that "it was not over yet, and something was going tohappen," Graves said, adding that Daniels had acted "weird and paranoid."

She testified at the trial of Vaughan and Thomas Singletary, both 36 and of Central Islip. They are charged with torturing, shooting, stabbing and strangling Daniels, 31; her sister, Mykier Daniels, 28; and Mykier Daniels' boyfriend, Louis Calixto Jr., 19, and then burning down the house.

In an argument to Suffolk County Court Judge James Hudson outside of the presence of the two juries hearing the case, Keahon said Graves' testimony about what Daniels said contradicts the prosecution's claim that Vaughan sought revenge against the three for stealing his belongings.

"Their whole case stands on the motive that my client's computer was stolen," Keahon said.

Assistant District Attorney John Cortes argued the testimony about Daniels wrongly claiming Vaughan had been shot in the head was irrelevant, but Hudson disagreed.

Later yesterday, family members of the victims cried as they and jurors watched a video of the burned-out house.

The video showed the scene in the house room by charred room, until reaching the back room where the bodies lay on the still smoking floor.

One member of Vaughan's jury turned away from the screen and doubled over, as another wiped away tears.Each defendant has his own jury because they may eventually blame the crimes on each other. They are charged with first-degree murder, arson and other crimes. They face life in prison without parole if convicted.