Crime & Safety

Queens Man Indicted in Oakdene Avenue Double Murder

Prosecutors believe killings were drug-related.

A Queens man was indicted Wednesday on charges that he fatally shot two men on Oakdene Avenue last year in an apparent drug-related killing, NorthJersey.com reported.

The indictment, handed down by a Bergen County grand jury, also charges Nicholas D. Kiriakakis, 26, of Queens, with engaging in a “drug-dealing conspiracy,” the report said.

The bodies of Michael Mirasola, 27, and Jonathan Beneduce, 28, were found in an SUV on Oakdene Avenue on Feb. 18, 2010.  According to the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, Kiriakakis shot the two men after the three went to Teaneck to engage in what authorities believe was a drug deal.

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“The two victims were good friends, and both were acquaintances of Kiriakakis,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement issued after the murders. 

Evidence was recovered during searches of his home, car and Pearl Nightlife, a Queens bar partly owned by Kiriakakis, the statement said.

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Marc Agnifilo, an attorney for Kiriakakis, could not be immediately reached for comment. 

Read more at NorthJersey.com 


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