Dec 21, 2007 10:57 am US/Eastern
Neighbor Of Clintons Charged In Wife's 2006 Murder
Perez-Olivo Pleads Not Guilty In Bizarre Shooting Of Wife
CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (CBS) ―
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Carlos Perez-Olivo, a man whose wife was shot and killed in their car, apparently by a gunman who ran them off a Westchester County, N.Y., road, tried to become physical with a television reporter who asked if he was actually the one who murdered his wife.
CBS
A disbarred attorney whose wife was killed after he claimed a gunman burst into his SUV following a car accident last year and shot her to death was arrested and was charged with her murder, sources tell CBS 2.
Carlos Perez-Olivo, 60, is accused of murdering his wife Peggy Perez-Olivo in the Nov. 18, 2006 incident. He's currently being held on $1 million bail.
The couple were neighbors of Bill and Hillary Clinton in an upscale Chappaqua neighborhood, renting a house just three doors down from the former president and presidential hopeful.
Perez-Olivo was arrested at the house and arrived in court shortly before 5 p.m. Thursday and was second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon. If convicted, he could spend the remainder of his life behind bars.
He pleaded not guilty on the charges.
Prosecutor Perry Perrone called the killing "a cold-blooded, well-planned execution" and said there was "a compelling circumstantial case, a compelling forensic case" against Perez-Olivo.
"All investigative roads led to one person and one person only," Perrone said in Westchester County Court, where the indictment of Perez-Olivo was unsealed Thursday.
Defense attorney Robert Buckley told CBS 2 that Perez-Olivo was targeted by enemies and quoted him as saying, "The person that did this to me has put me in hell, and these people are keeping me there."
Last December, state police divers found a Walther PPK handgun believed to be used in the murder in Echo Lake, just a short distance from the spot where Mr. Perez-Olivo claimed he was forced off the road while driving home from New York City.
Mr. Perez-Olivo told police a man burst into his Mitsubishi SUV after the accident and opened fire. Peggy Perez-Olivo died two days later from a gunshot wound to the head, and her husband suffered a minor wound to the abdomen.
The road would not normally be part of the route home, but Perez-Olivo said the couple had detoured onto Route 100 in Millwood to find a gas station. He said he was able to drive to the hospital despite his abdominal wound.
Last November, Mr. Perez-Olivo made more headlines after leaving a police station where he was being questioned. When he was approached by members of the media, he reacted angrily as a reporter asked him if he had killed his wife. He furiously tried to shove reporters twice before being pushed into a vehicle that sped off.
The former president and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said they were "saddened" to hear of the death of their neighbor, after the news spread.
Perez-Olivo had been trying to collect on his wife's life insurance, but the insurance companies had balked because he had not been ruled out as a suspect.
He was disbarred from the practice of law in Aug. 2006 for mishandling cases and finances of some of his clients.
Peggy Perez-Olivo, who was 55 at the time of her death, worked as a teacher's aide at Grafflin Elementary School in Chappaqua. The principal, Michael Kirsch, described her as "just a wonderful person, very good with the children."
The Perez-Olivos have at two children; a son who graduated Horace Greeley High School in 1996, and a daughter who attended the same school.
Stay with wcbstv.com for more on this developing story.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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