The surrogate son of a “jeweler to the stars” who allegedly murdered a Hofstra grad in a swank Midtown apartment in 2016 taunted cops as they began their investigation, an NYPD detective testified Monday.
Detective Yeoman Castro, who led the missing persons investigation into victim Joseph Comunale before his body was found, said James Rackover made the remarks while he was reviewing surveillance footage at the building that contradicted the defendant’s story.
“James walks in, and as he comes to front of the desk area where I’m sitting, he laughs and says, ‘Good luck getting that video.’ And he goes towards the elevators,” Castro said in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Rackover — the 27-year-old adopted son and alleged lover of celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover — then returned to the lobby of the swank Sutton Place building half an hour later, Castro said.
“He crosses in front of me. Behind me there’s a ledge. He sits behind ledge and says, ‘Good thing I spoke to my girlfriend. She said I was in the apartment all night,'” the cop said, adding that the defendant then left the building.
When James walked back in later that evening, he overheard Castro talking about getting a copy of the surveillance footage and taunted the detective yet again.
“As he’s walking by he laughs at me and says, ‘Good luck getting that second copy,’ and walks towards the elevators,” Castro said.
James is accused of stabbing Comunale to death after a drug-fueled fight over cigarettes on Nov. 13, 2016, trying to dismember him in a bathtub, then disposing of his corpse in a shallow grave with the help of pal Lawrence Dilione.
His bizarre heckles to Castro came at the end of a series of odd conversations with the cop the next day.
When Castro first came to view the security footage in search of the then-missing man, James claimed he didn’t know who Comunale was or where he went after partying in his fourth-floor apartment that night.
He said he was busy with a girl until 5 a.m. — but the footage quickly revealed James in the building’s elevator at one point, so Castro called him to ask about the discrepancy.
James then “remembered” that he went to check on his 57-year-old adoptive father — who has an apartment in the same building — because: “He likes to party.”
Castro said he asked if Comunale might have gone upstairs to party with Jeffrey, but James responded: “No, he parties alone. I wanted to make sure he was OK.”
Castro later called again when he found footage of James actually leaving the apartment at one point.
“He gets really aggressive. He says, ‘It’s none of your f–king business where I’m going. I come and go as I please,’” Castro told the court.
But James then phoned back shortly with a very different attitude.
“He had changed completely, his whole demeanor, his tone of voice. He said, ‘Hey, detective, I don’t know why you keep calling me so much about this kid. I don’t know him. He’s a stranger,’” Castro recounted.
After this, around 5:30 p.m., James began making his bizarre jeers in the lobby, the cop said.
Later that night, the NYPD’s K-9 unit arrived and found a sweatshirt with a bloody sleeve, bloody Saran wrap and bloody paper towels in the building’s trash — alongside a plastic container with James Rackover’s name and address on it that held towels and Comunale’s driver’s license, Castro said.
Police subsequently discovered Comunale’s corpse buried in Oceanport, NJ.
