For killing his girlfriend in March 2022, a man from Leonia could go to jail for up to 30 years.
Nile Diakos went to court on Monday and pleaded guilty to killing Alicia Arnone, 35, in the first degree. He did this in front of Bergen County Superior Court Judge Susan Steele.
On March 26, 2022, cops went to Arnone’s Grand Avenue apartment in Leonia and found that she had been stabbed in the head and neck. She was found in a pool of blood at the top of her apartment steps with a knife near her head.
Diakos was the one who called the cops and told them that Arnone’s daughter was dead inside when they came to the door.
Diakos said during the hearing that she had stabbed Arnone several times, knowing that it would probably kill her. In return for Diakos’s guilty plea, the state will drop the charges of having weapons and making it hard to catch him.
The Child Changed the Story
The state wants Diakos to spend 30 years in jail without the chance of getting out. On May 22 at 1:30 p.m., he will be given his sentence.
Other pending criminal charges from Passaic County, such as stalking and certain people not being allowed to have a gun, are likely to add more time to the 30-year sentence that was suggested by Bergen County.
Andrae Daniels, Arnone’s ex-boyfriend from Lodi, was arrested for her death at first, but the charges were dropped soon after when Arnone’s daughter changed her story about what she saw. The child had first said that she had seen Daniels standing next to her mother while she was tied to a chair and giving her a scary look.
Police also got recordings of Diakos’ confession over the phone, which put doubt on what eyewitnesses said.
Bergen County A retired cop says he was punished for not supporting the long-time mayor of Bergen.
Diakos went to see Steele in April to talk about a possible confession and detention hearing as part of a pre-trial request. Bergen County Prosecutor Suzanne Cevasco said that Diakos had told a friend, who recorded the talk, that he had stabbed Arnone and run away when he heard her daughter coming. He then went around the apartment to make it look like he had just arrived.
Cevasco also read parts of a chat between Diakos and an ex-girlfriend who had a restraining order against him. He told her he loved her and that Arnone had “done him wrong,” but he didn’t press charges as she had.
Diakos told his ex-girlfriend that he was going to turn himself in for killing Arnone and that he would “never be in [her] life again.” He also told her that she could turn him in before he did.
His lawyer, Kathleen Theurer, tried to say that her client’s confession was not exactly a confession but “the ramblings of someone who is suffering.”
During the hearing on the move, Theurer said that Diakos had major depression, schizophrenia, and problems with drugs. She also said that Arnone’s daughter had said Daniels killed her mother before, but that she changed her mind the day Diakos was charged and was asked a series of yes or no questions.
Steele understood that Diakos was having problems with her mental health, but she was worried about them and the dangers they could cause. She considered the recorded comments and text messages to be a big reason why she should be detained.
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