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February 5, 2008

Local man admits killing aunt

By DENISE RAYMO

By DENISE A. RAYMO

Staff Writer



CONSTABLE — Jack Allen Jr. struck his aunt, Mary Allen, three times in the forehead with a heavy glass pitcher as she lay on the couch watching TV.

He could still hear her breathing during the 20 minutes it took him to rummage through her Powers Road home, looking for money and valuables.

Allen found $70 in cash, grabbed his aunt’s car and drove to the Akwesasne Mohawk Casino, where he played blackjack for a half-hour.

From there, he headed south to the Utica-Rome area, where he used the rest of the stolen money to buy crack and smoked it with friends.

His aunt’s body was found when family members became concerned when they could not contact her or find her car.

Allen was arrested following a 24-hour international manhunt that saw him wanted for additional charges of robbery and burglary in Oneida County.

He pleaded guilty Tuesday in Franklin County Court to second-degree murder and fourth-degree grand larceny.

He is expected to be sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison on Friday, March 21, by Acting County Court Judge Kathleen Rogers.

Mary’s sister, Sarah Manor of Constable, said the family accepted the plea agreement and wants the community to remember what a special woman she was.

Her eyes were rimmed in red from crying as she stood in the office of District Attorney Derek Champagne to share her sorrow.

“We’re satisfied with the outcome and the plea he made. My sister can rest now. She will not be forgotten.

“The man who did this to her will be put away, but we will still miss her dearly,” Manor said. “We will never forget her, and we will make sure she is never forgotten.”

Jack Allen also pleaded guilty as a second-felony offender to two counts of third-degree burglary, which will satisfy charges pending against him in Oneida County, which is where he fled after stealing in his aunt’s car.

A combined sentencing of 5 to 10 years for those two charges would run consecutive to each other but concurrent to the Franklin County prison term.

He robbed two convenience stores, broke into other businesses and committed other minor crimes before the manhunt ended in his arrest.

Authorities had expanded their search into Canada because Allen’s estranged wife and three children live in Nepean, Ontario.

He told authorities he is flagged as unable to enter Canada by land, but he had thought about buying a rubber raft and crossing the St. Lawrence River to get there.

Allen, 37, had lived alone at the Powers Road home with his aunt by marriage since the end of September. He told State Police investigators that he and Mary had begun an intimate relationship within a short time.

He said the two of them were drinking vodka on Friday, Oct. 12, about 7:30 p.m. when they reignited an argument they had about her on-again, off-again relationship with her estranged husband, Timothy, who is Jack Allen’s uncle.

In a four-page statement to Oneida-based State Police, Allen said, “I was just sick and tired of the mind games. If she wanted to go back with him, she should just be honest and stop jerking my chain.”

As things cooled down, she went to watch TV on the couch.

But Allen said he was still fuming, thinking how he had been played as a fool.

“I ended up getting really pissed. I grabbed a glass pitcher from the counter. I went over to the couch where Aunt Mary was laying. I came right up behind her.

“She was still awake. She was not looking at me. She was watching TV. I hit Aunt Mary in the forehead with the pitcher. I was holding it by the handle, and I hit her with the bottom of it.

“I remember that I hit her three times with the pitcher, and then I went back into the kitchen and sat down at the table. After I hit Mary, she was still breathing.”

The telephone rang, and he talked briefly with the woman calling from Pennsylvania.

“After that phone conversation, I could still hear Aunt Mary breathing. I don’t know if I hit her again. I remember that I was thinking about hitting her with the rolling pin, but I can’t remember if I actually did hit her with it.

“I took my shirt and threw it over her head because I did not want to see her. I knew she was in pain, and I didn’t want to look at her.”

That’s when Allen said he began rummaging through the home, looking for money and valuables. He came up with $13 in American paper money, $6 in Canadian paper funds, $40 to $50 in change and a box of jewelry.

“When I left the house, Aunt Mary was still breathing, and my shirt was still over her head. I really didn’t know if she was going to make it. I was really scared, and I just wanted to get out of there.”

He ended up in Utica, where he looked up a girl he knew and smoked crack with her and another woman.

“I did not tell them what had happened with Aunt Mary. I ended up spending the rest of my money on crack.”

The next night, Saturday, he burglarized a store where he had once worked, getting away with $130 from vending machines, then returned two more times to get even more cash.

“By Sunday, I was out of money again,” he told the police.

He had spent it all on crack.

Allen said he drove off without paying for a tankful of gas in Rome, thought of robbing a Wal-Mart gas station, snatched $185 in cash during an unarmed robbery at the New London Food Mart “and used that money for more crack.”

He again ran out of money, stole $20 out of a store’s cash register in Washington Mills then returned to the home where he’d been staying, which is where police arrested him.

District Attorney Champagne said Allen and his defense attorney, William McCallig, agreed to settle the case to prevent further pain to Mary Allen’s family and his own.

He said it is nearly unheard of to have settlement in such a complicated case just four months after it occurred.

“This way, all of the details and facts and specifics of the case don’t have to be dragged on month after month after month,” the DA said.

He said the plea was fair because Jack Allen had no history of violence, but he does have a heart problem and did have alcohol- and substance-abuse problems, including abuse of prescription medicines.

“He was on a collision course. With the news from his estranged wife that they were done and him being afraid he was not going to be part of his children’s lives, what started as a minor argument quickly escalated, and Mary just happened to be the person at hand.

“We believe 20 years is the proper sentence,” Champagne said, “but there is nothing the State of New York can do to bring Mary back. I’m just glad it’s over for the family.”



E-mail Denise A. Raymo at:

draymo@pressrepublican.com

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