Nicholas Kiriakakis, a 25-year-old (foto) Queens restaurant/lounge owner, was released on bail on Friday following charges of double homicide and one count of criminal possession of a handgun. Bail was set at $2 million.
A Queens bar owner pleaded not guilty on Monday in the shooting deaths of two New York City men on a Teaneck street last month.
Kiriakakis, was brought to state court in Hackensack to be arraigned on two murder charges and one count of criminal possession of a handgun.
“We ask the media not to rush to judgment on this case until it is determined what happened on that day,” Elias Fillas, one of Kiriakakis’ lawyers, said after the hearing.
Authorities found the bullet-riddled bodies of Queens residents Jonathan Beneduce, 28, and Michael Mirasola, 27, in a 2007 Ford Explorer on Oakdene Avenue on the morning of Feb. 18, with the passenger door open and the engine still running.
The two men were good friends and knew Kiriakakis, Bergen County prosecutors said. The three met in Queens on the evening of Feb. 17 and headed for Teaneck – with Beneduce and Mirasola in the SUV and Kiriakakis following in another car, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors did not offer any details other than saying the killings were drug-related.
Kiriakakis – who co-owns Pearl Nightlife, a bar in the Bayside section of Queens – was arrested in New York City a few days after the shooting. His return to Bergen County was delayed when he challenged his extradition to New Jersey.
He later agreed to be brought back and was transferred to the Bergen County Jail late last week.
Kiriakakis said nothing at the brief hearing on Monday besides answering yes-or-no questions from Judge Harry G. Carroll, who kept Kiriakakis’ bail at $3 million.
Four of his family members who attended the hearing left without commenting.
“The family is very distraught over this matter,” said Samuel DiMeglio, Jr., another attorney for Kiriakakis.
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