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Former Clinton Neighbor Convicted Of Murder In NY

Prosecutors: Perez-Olivo Killed His Wife For Life Insurance Claim In 2006

WHITE PLAINS (CBS) ― He has denied killing his wife for nearly two years, but jurors didn't believe him.

Carlos Perez-Olivo, the Chappaqua man suspected of killing his wife, was found guilty Saturday afternoon. He was convicted on murder and weapon possession charges.

On November 18, 2006, both Perez-Olivo and his wife Peggy were shot inside their SUV along the Saw Mill River Parkway. She was fatally shot in the head, he in his abdomen.

Now two years later, jurors say he did do it. Inside the Westchester County courthouse Perez-Olivo's son shouted and punched a hole in a courthouse wall when he learned the news.

His father was found guilty of murdering his mother, even after all three of the couple's children had testified on their father's behalf.

"It was very moving," juror Alfrin Vellejo, of White Plains, said. "It moved a lot of people. We had to get past that and get to the facts."

Kathryn Cramer knew the victim – Peggy Hall Perez-Olivo taught Cramer's son in school.

"It was my impression that he was guilty," Cramer said. "It took a long time. It's a shame it took such a long time for this to go through."

The jury was unable to reach a conclusion Friday and the judge ordered them to deliberate again. The jury members asked for key pieces of evidence, including the murder weapon, found in a nearby lake, and the 9-1-1 tape of Perez-Olivo asking for help.

His defense attorneys took this as a good sign. "The tape speaks for itself. You heard it. You heard his concern for his wife," McClure said.

Another key piece of evidence came in the words a witness who testified that he saw the Walther PPK -- the gun that was used in the murder and found four days later in a lake -- in a house Perez-Olivo once rented.The witness said he also offered to buy the gun from Perez-Olivo.
 
Before the trial, Perez-Olivo's attorney accused authorities of manufacturing evidence, and said the witnesses claims were lies.

During opening statements, prosecutor Christine O'Connor said the Perez-Olivos presented a "veneer of a stable, happy, 30-year marriage." 

But Carlos was unfaithful, unemployed and nearly broke.

Perez-Olivo told police he also had other "small" affairs and his wife didn't know of the long affair with the woman he identified as Ileana Poole of Georgia. He said the affair had ended a year and a half before the shooting but that he had sent her flowers two days before her Nov. 18 birthday and the shooting.

Perez-Olivo lives in Chappaqua on the same cul-de-sac as Bill and Hillary Clinton.

Perez-Olivo's three children stood by their father and refused to accept his guilt. In a CBS 2 exclusive interview in January, Merced Perez-Hall called his dad a hero and blasted police.

He said that the police and the DA were simply going for the easy target in a complicated murder case.

"Talk to anyone who's ever known him, or been a friend of him or been around him and you know that he's not a killer," Merced said.

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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