A former Pagan Outlaw Motorcycle Gang leader turned informant testified Monday against his former Pagan member, Ferdinand Augello, saying he heard that Augello was shopping around for a gunman to kill radio host April Kauffman.
Augello and Kauffman's husband, Dr. James Kauffman, wanted April Kauffman dead because her husband was afraid that she would divorce him or blackmail him about the OxyContin ring that he and Augello ran, said Andrew "Chef" Glick, a former Pagan chapter president.
"He wasn't going to give her half of his wealth, which was almost $5 million," Glick testified.
Glick, who admitted selling OxyContin as part of the drug ring, was the first witness after opening arguments in Augello's trial in Superior Court in Atlantic City. Augello and James Kauffman were charged with the April Kauffman's 2012 murder.
Prosecutors said the men wanted to stop her from exposing a drug ring they ran with the gang. To kill her, Augello allegedly hired Francis Mulholland, 46, of Lower Township, who investigators say broke into the Kauffman's Linwood home on May 10, 2012, and shot her twice.
Mulholland died of a drug overdose in 2013 and Kauffman died from suicide in a Hudson County jail cell in January, leaving Augello to stand trial, prosecutors said.
Chief Assistant Atlantic County Prosecutor Seth Levy told jurors Monday they will "hear the truth screaming at you" during the trial. He sought to cast Augello as the ringleader of "an empire" that clashed with that of Kauffman's, "an empire built on lies."
Augello "had people responsible to him, that owed him their allegiance" and their silence about the no-questions-asked Oxy prescriptions that James Kauffman would provide, Levy said. "The pills flow through him."
Levy said two of the people who knew the secret are dead, and the living one blabbed to a confidential informant.
"Three people can keep a secret, if two are dead," Levy repeated several times during his opening.
Augello sat quietly, blinking slowly, alternating between letting his long gray mane down and putting it up in a ponytail.
Lead defense attorney Mary Linehan countered that prosecutors think their case is "just too big to fail."
She accused investigators of "moving people around like chess pieces" and said the prosecutor's office ignored a state division of consumer affairs complaint about red-flag prescriptions coming from Kauffman's office (as an endocrinologist, he would normally prescribe hormone supplements, but not painkillers).
Glick testified that he turned down the offer to kill April Kauffman but Augello, who he called "Miserable," asked him to ask around, see if someone else would do it.
The murder drew the attention of "Jersey Jim," the leader of the Pagans in the state, who arranged a meeting to ask the Atlantic and Cape May county Pagans about the killing.
"If I told the truth, I would've gotten my ass handed to me, beaten and my jacket taken," he said.
https://www.nj.com/atlantic/index.ssf/2018/09/opening_statements_in_april_kauffman_murder_trial.html
Augello and Kauffman's husband, Dr. James Kauffman, wanted April Kauffman dead because her husband was afraid that she would divorce him or blackmail him about the OxyContin ring that he and Augello ran, said Andrew "Chef" Glick, a former Pagan chapter president.
"He wasn't going to give her half of his wealth, which was almost $5 million," Glick testified.
Glick, who admitted selling OxyContin as part of the drug ring, was the first witness after opening arguments in Augello's trial in Superior Court in Atlantic City. Augello and James Kauffman were charged with the April Kauffman's 2012 murder.
Prosecutors said the men wanted to stop her from exposing a drug ring they ran with the gang. To kill her, Augello allegedly hired Francis Mulholland, 46, of Lower Township, who investigators say broke into the Kauffman's Linwood home on May 10, 2012, and shot her twice.
Mulholland died of a drug overdose in 2013 and Kauffman died from suicide in a Hudson County jail cell in January, leaving Augello to stand trial, prosecutors said.
Chief Assistant Atlantic County Prosecutor Seth Levy told jurors Monday they will "hear the truth screaming at you" during the trial. He sought to cast Augello as the ringleader of "an empire" that clashed with that of Kauffman's, "an empire built on lies."
Augello "had people responsible to him, that owed him their allegiance" and their silence about the no-questions-asked Oxy prescriptions that James Kauffman would provide, Levy said. "The pills flow through him."
Levy said two of the people who knew the secret are dead, and the living one blabbed to a confidential informant.
"Three people can keep a secret, if two are dead," Levy repeated several times during his opening.
Augello sat quietly, blinking slowly, alternating between letting his long gray mane down and putting it up in a ponytail.
Lead defense attorney Mary Linehan countered that prosecutors think their case is "just too big to fail."
She accused investigators of "moving people around like chess pieces" and said the prosecutor's office ignored a state division of consumer affairs complaint about red-flag prescriptions coming from Kauffman's office (as an endocrinologist, he would normally prescribe hormone supplements, but not painkillers).
Glick testified that he turned down the offer to kill April Kauffman but Augello, who he called "Miserable," asked him to ask around, see if someone else would do it.
The murder drew the attention of "Jersey Jim," the leader of the Pagans in the state, who arranged a meeting to ask the Atlantic and Cape May county Pagans about the killing.
"If I told the truth, I would've gotten my ass handed to me, beaten and my jacket taken," he said.
https://www.nj.com/atlantic/index.ssf/2018/09/opening_statements_in_april_kauffman_murder_trial.html