Four weeks after the body of 25-year-old Jacob Giarrusso was discovered last November in his parked car off Morgan Road, Onondaga County Sheriff’s Detectives charged a state parolee with his murder. Jacob E. Stanton, 24, of Lake Country Drive, Geddes, was charged Dec. 19 with second-degree murder, third-degree criminal possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence and petit larceny in connection with Giarrusso’s death.

No motive has yet been suggested by investigators or prosecutors.

Meanwhile, on Feb. 21 — as Stanton remained incarcerated at the Corbett Justice Center downtown — he was arrested again, this time by Liverpool Police Officer Robert Marshall. The new charges were second-degree burglary and fourth-degree grand larceny, crimes allegedly committed on or about June 30 or July 1, 2017, at a residence located on Hiawatha Trail, in Liverpool.

Liverpool Police Chief reported the arrest at the Feb. 27 meeting of the village board of trustees.

Hiawatha Trail home

The Hiawatha Trail home was illegally entered, the chief reported, and a laptop, a tablet, jewelry and a 1990 Mazda Miata were stolen.  

“The scene was processed by an Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office evidence technician at the LPD’s request,” Morris said. “Evidence was brought to the Forensic Science Center for examination.”

On July 3, 2017, the Mazda was recovered at a business on John Glenn Boulevard, he said. So the LPD again asked the sheriff’s evidence experts to process the vehicle, and fingerprints were found. On Feb. 21, lab analysis report from the Latent Print Section of the Wallie Howard Jr. Center for Forensic Sciences. The report indicated that the prints found in the Mazda matched Jacob Stanton’s known fingerprints. 

“The car was owned by one of the residents of the burglary,” Morris said. He declined to identify the homeowners. 

The chief believed the burglary was unrelated to the Giarrusso murder, which was committed 20 weeks later.

Stanton rap sheet

Five years ago, when Stanton lived at 608 Wolf St. on Syracuse’s North Side, he was charged with second-degree burglary and second-degree robbery, both felonies, and petit larceny, a misdemeanor, after a Dec. 2 home invasion in Mexico, New York.

Authorities said Stanton was one of three men who disguised themselves with ski masks and broke into a home where they attacked a man inside, wrestled him to the ground and stole loose change. Stanton was also charged with misdemeanor criminal impersonation in 2012, after he allegedly falsely identified himself during the investigation. Police also found an outstanding warrant against Stanton in Onondaga County at that time.

After being found guilty of third-degree robbery, Stanton served more than two years at the Attica Correctional Facility before being paroled on Feb. 18, 2016.

Giarrusso reportedly lived with his grandmother in the town of Salina, on Sunflower Drive, Liverpool. He was the father of a 7-year-old son.

The Sheriff’s Office requests anyone with information about the Giarrusso murder to call deputies at (315) 435-3081.

Duck me!

I owe an apology to The Retreat kitchen staff for insinuating that the cooks had made a geographic faux pas.  

They’d named a Feb. 22 entrée “Wisconsin blue duck” and — as though my Wikipedia research made me some kind of expert — I dutifully reported in my March 7 column that the blue duck species is endemic to New Zealand, not Wisconsin.

Turns out the joke’s on me, because the word Wisconsin referred not to the duck meat but to the cheese the chefs used in the recipe. 

In fact, the Badger State dominates domestic production of blue-veined cheeses, which get their character and flavor from mold cultures intentionally coaxed during aging. No other state comes close to either producing the same amount or having the same number of blue cheese-making facilities. 

So the seared duck breast remains a succulent burgundy-brown well-embellished with Wisconsin blue cheese, but my face is red!

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