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NEW YORK DAILY NEWS RONKONKOMA, NEW YORK 
Laura Giampino (20) A Long Island man who said he strangled a newlywed and then set fire to her home has been sentenced to 4-to-12 years in prison. Christopher Bayer pleaded guilty in Suffolk County Court last month to manslaughter and arson charges, admitting he strangled 20-year-old Laura Giampino during what he described as consensual rough sex in her Ronkonkoma home last May. Bayer also said he set fire to the house and fled in a panic. An autopsy found Giampino died from strangulation. Relatives of the victim dispute the sex was consensual and claim she was raped before being killed. She had been married five months when she died.
Background article 
PHOTO: Bayer Christopher Bayer, the Ronkonkoma man charged with strangling a married friend during sex, then torching her home, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter and arson charges.
The guilty plea angered the husband of the victim, Laura Giampino, 20. Outside the Suffolk Criminal courtroom in Riverhead, he called Bayer "a monster.
"He gave my wife a closed-casket funeral," said Michael Giampino, 25, speaking after the Riverhead court session heard by Judge Robert Doyle. "He should be ashamed of himself." Bayer, 23, must return for sentencing March 10, when he could face from 5 to 15 years imprisonment under the terms of a plea deal.
In Monday's court session, Bayer gave his version of what he did to Laura Giampino in the Memorial Day slaying, in May. He told the court that he was having sex with her and grabbed her by the neck, then realized too late that he had choked her to death. "I panicked. I tried to wake her up," Bayer said, in tears. "I didn't know what to do. I was scared."
His defense lawyer, Steven Politi of Central Islip, said Bayer had no prior convictions. The victim and her killer were friends, and the sex was consensual, Politi said.
Prosecutors charged that Bayer "strangled his victim with a sock" while having sex with her and set the house ablaze "in an apparent attempt to cover up his crime."
Giampino's family has said they believe Bayer raped her before killing her in her Ronkonkoma home.
Because Giampino's body was so badly burned, the cause of death was not immediately clear, but a medical examiner's report determined that she was strangled.
Laura Giampino, a graduate of Sachem High School in Ronkonkoma, had recently begun working in the bakery section of the Ronkonkoma King Kullen. She had been married for five months to Michael Giampino, who at the time of her death was in jail on an unrelated conviction.
Article/May 31-st, 2007 WABC-TV Suffolk County Police have made an arrest in connection with the death of 20-year-old Laura Giampino. She was found dead Monday in a burning house in Ronkonkoma and the medical examiner determined that she was strangled before the fire started. Police say 22-year-old Christopher Bayer of Ronkonkoma was arrested and charged with second degree manslaughter. At his arraignment this morning, Bayer claims he had consensual rough sex with Laura Giampino. When he realized he had killed her by mistake he set the house on fire to cover up the crime. He was remanded without bail. "Mr. Bayer claims that during consensual rough sex. There was a sock used in this act, she was strangled inadvertently," said Det. Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick. His next court date is set for June 5th. On Monday, several motorists noticed smoke coming from a house at 756 Hawkins Avenue in Ronkonkoma. When firefighters from the Ronkonkoma Fire Department entered the house they discovered the woman's body. "I was with my daughter on mother's day, I looked her straight in the eye and we had this conversation. She loved her husband, she would never cheat on him," said the victim's mom.
Earlier News Report A Ronkonkoma man has been arrested and charged with manslaughter in the strangulation death of a young woman whose badly burned body was discovered after a fire at her home, Suffolk County police homicide detectives said Thursday.
Christopher Bayer, 22, of 23 St. Joseph Ave. in Ronkonkoma, faces second-degree manslaughter charges.
The body of Laura Giampino, 20, who had been married just five months earlier, was discovered by Ronkonkoma Fire Department volunteers in a front room of her home on Hawkins Avenue after motorists reported seeing smoke coming from the house at about 8:30 a.m. Monday.
Laura Giampino (20)
Fitzpatrick said that because Giampino was so badly burned, the cause of death was not immediately clear. But officials said on Wednesday that the Suffolk County Medical Examiner's Office determined that Giampino's death was due to strangulation. The Suffolk County Police Department Homicide Squad is continuing the investigation.
The medical examiner's report did not include a precise time of death, Fitzpatrick said, but it is known that Giampino was still alive the evening before because she had friends over to visit.
No one else was found in the house at that time, and Giampino's husband, Michael, 24, was not considered a suspect in the case, Fitzpatrick said; he had been in the Suffolk County jail since Friday, serving a 45-day sentence on an unrelated conviction of menacing with a weapon.
Laura Giampino was a graduate of Sachem High School in Ronkonkoma. She began working recently in the bakery section of the Ronkonkoma King Kullen. |
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