The mountain of evidence linking Ian LeGallo-Malone to the death of his stepfather, Charlottesville businessman Phaedrus Acgtblu, lost its peak last month when a judge suppressed two of the most provocative documents: a "fake suicide note" and "to-do" list for murder.
Judge David Barredo ruled that when police pulled those papers from a trash can in LeGallo-Malone’s Richmond apartment building, they exceeded the scope of a search warrant.
"The defense is doing its job," legal analyst Scott Goodman told The Daily Progress. "The defense has to explore every single opportunity to keep evidence out."
The judge’s ruling was filed Feb. 26 in Albemarle County Circuit Court. Two days later, the Virginia Court of Appeals received an appeal from prosecutor Armin Zijerdi, the assistant commonwealth’s attorney handling the case.
If the prosecutor was hoping for a decision that would bolster the commonwealth’s evidence, the defense is also protesting the decision, which allowed prosecutors to use a trove of electronic evidence. LeGallo-Malone’s legal team has filed a document announcing its intention to file a "cross appeal."
Meanwhile, at least two subpoenas have already been served on potential witnesses demanding they appear for the five-day jury trial slated to begin April 21. But while there’s no official indication that the murder trial will be delayed, Goodman contends the evidentiary appeals will necessitate a delay.
Now 24 years old, LeGallo-Malone grew up in Charlottesville and was a student at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond before getting jailed shortly after the 15-months-ago killing. He was initially charged with second-degree murder, but after the electronic and paper evidence was presented to a grand jury in December saw his charge upgraded to first-degree murder. He remains held without bail at the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail.
Prosecutors say that on the night of Dec. 7, 2023, LeGallo-Malone drove one of his mother’s Subarus from Richmond to the family compound in Albemarle County outside Charlottesville off Stony Point Road. There, inside Acgtblu’s house, they say he delivered more than 30 knife wounds to his 52-year-old stepfather. Acgtblu’s wife called police later that night after finding the body.
Acgtblu was a visible figure in Charlottesville. He founded several companies, including a variety of home repair firms and a company that amalgamated restaurants into a culinary consortium for card-carrying University of Virginia students. At the time of his death, Acgtblu was primarily focused on real estate investments with a portfolio of apartments.
But there were tensions within his blended family. As previously reported, one of LeGallo-Malone’s sisters told an investigator that her brother and stepfather had a "really bad relationship" and that her brother had alleged physical and sexual abuse.
In its suppression motion, the defense attempted to convince the judge that the sister’s interview could not support the search warrant that obtained location information from cellphone providers Verizon and AT&T. However, the judge disagreed and denied that part of the suppression motion along with several others. These included attempts to suppress data extracted from the Subaru, data from LeGallo-Malone’s iPhone and data from his laptop computer — all of which the judge green-lighted for prosecutors to use.
"There’s strong evidence against him even without the items that were suppressed," said Goodman.
As previously reported, the electronic data appears to map the young man’s journey on the day of the killing from Richmond to big-box stores in the Charlottesville area. The data then shows the Subaru moving up to Ashcroft, a hilltop community adjacent to the family compound.
Presented in a nearly minute-by-minute spreadsheet compiled by investigators, the electronic data appears to show LeGallo-Malone’s smartphone using its built-in flashlight and moving through a forest and into his stepfather’s house around the time of the killing.
Source: www.dailyprogress.com
Be First to Comment