Grilled on stand in slay trial
Newsday – Long Island, N.Y.
Author: CARL MACGOWAN
Date: Dec. 11, 2010
Copyright © 2010, Newsday Inc.
Facing blistering questions Friday from her ex-boyfriend’s defense attorney, a former stripper denied lying
about a murder-for-hire plot in which Nesconset attorney James DiMartino was killed.
Testifying for the second day as a prosecution witness at the first-degree murder trial of Donovan Raysor,
Monique Randall denied the attorney’s suggestions that she had concocted a story about DiMartino’s
slaying and honed it in previous trials before testifying against Raysor.
She was pessimistic when Raysor’s attorney, Michael Brown of Central Islip, suggested she would get a
light sentence for cooperating with prosecutors.
“I don’t think I’m going to ever go home, to tell you the truth,” said Randall, 31, who before her arrest lived
in St. Albans, Queens.
Prosecutors say Raysor, Randall and Darnell Festus were paid a total of $10,000 by DiMartino’s business
partner, Ronald Thornton, to kill DiMartino on Oct. 20, 2008, in a Commack parking lot.
Raysor, 23, also of St. Albans, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other charges. He is being
held without bail.
Thornton, 39, of Nesconset, and Festus, 25, of Queens, are serving life sentences after first-degree murder
convictions at separate trials.
Randall pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified at Thornton’s and Festus’ trials. She is
expected to be sentenced to 15 years to life in prison for her role in the plot.
Randall said she and Raysor exchanged nearly 200 letters while jailed for DiMartino’s death. She also
wrote to Raysor’s mother, with whom the couple had lived.
She admitted telling Raysor’s mother that she believed Raysor would be cleared of murder. “I was being
nice to her so someone could go to my house and get my stuff,” Randall said.
