A Staten Island grand jury cleared a reputed Albanian gangster of murder charges Tuesday in the fatal stabbing of groom-to-be Antonio Lacertosa at his engagement party, prosecutors said.
Redinel Dervishaj, 35, testified that the stabbing was self-defense and that he tried to escape the drunken spat at Espana Restaurant at about 2 a.m. on March 17.
“He really didn’t have much of a choice,” Dervishaj’s attorney Thomas Reilly said, after the vote that cleared his client. “He wishes he didn’t have to do that.”
Security footage from the Annadale club played for the grand jury shows Dervishaj trying to flee a pack of attackers who had smashed the glass front door and chased Dervishaj into the kitchen, Reilly said.
It also shows Espana’s manager and Dervishaj’s friend, Ridi Zeneli, pulling out a pistol that he did not fire during the clash.
Dervishaj is seen getting tossed over a parked car as he tried to get away from the rowdy crew.
“He tried desperately to get away and when they kept on pursuing him, unfortunately all he could do was defend himself,” the lawyer said of the slashing.
Several witnesses who appeared before the grand jury corroborated Dervishaj’s story, Reilly added.
Staten Island District Attorney Dan Donovan called Lacertosa’s death a “tragic and senseless end to a night that began in celebration” in a statement issued Tuesday.
Dervishaj fled and was apprehended in Illinois within days of the slashing.
His alleged ties to organized crime stem from a 2007 incident in Queens when he was shot and his accomplice was killed after trying to shake down an ex-business partner for $20,000, sources told the Daily News.
Lacertosa planned to wed high school sweetheart Bridgette Schneider this year.
Calls to Lacertosa’s mother were not returned.
Dervishaj is expected to be sprung from Rikers and cleared of his immigration hold in the next couple of days. It is not known whether he plans to return to his Stapleton home upon his release.
sjacobs@nydailynews.com
