Nassau Man Convicted In Retrial Of 1998 Double Murder

FREEPORT, NY — A Freeport man was convicted of murder Friday in the retrial of a 1998 double-killing outside a Baldwin bar. John Pierotti, 65, was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder as well as weapons charges in the case, which was first tried in 2000.

He was taken into custody and is scheduled to be sentenced April 29. Pierotti faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.

"The defendant ruthlessly shot two men at point-blank range outside a Baldwin bar in 1998,"Madeline Singas, the Nassau County district attorney, said in a news release. "The families of Gerard Kennedy and Willis Frost have shown tremendous resolve sitting through this retrial, nearly 20 years after John Pierotti was initially convicted for murdering their loved ones. I thank them for their patience during this ordeal and hope that today’s verdict finally brings them the closure that they deserve."

On Dec. 23, 1998, Pierotti shot and killed two men — 36-year-old Gerard Kennedy and 41-year-old Willis Frost — outside the Dragger Inn, prosecutors said. Pierotti arrived at the bar that night around 1 a.m. with a gun and bullets. The two men had left the bar and were sitting in a van parked nearby when Pierotti knocked on the driver's window and began fighting with the two. Pierotti shot Frost in the chest at point-blank range, then shot Kennedy in the left eye as he tried to run.

Pierotti was arrested in two months later and was convicted of murder in 2000. That conviction was recently reversed by a federal appeals court when Pierotti said he wasn't able to hear during his trial. A retrial was ordered.