Two arson investigators and a state police crime lab analyst described for a jury Wednesday how the investigation into the death of a Teaneck man led to the conclusion that an accelerant was used to ignite an inferno after the victim was shot in the head in the basement of his home.
Anthony Mazzarella, a forensic scientist and assistant lab director at the New Jersey State Police Office of Forensic Sciences, led off the testimony as the love-triangle murder and arson trial of Sui Kam “Tony” Tung resumed in state Superior Court in Hackensack.
Tung, 52, of Manhattan is alleged to have killed Robert Cantor, 59, the boyfriend of his estranged wife, with a single gunshot to the back of the skull on March 6, 2011, before torching him on the bed where, authorities say, the couple consummated their affair.
Mazzarella told jurors that he tested five items recovered from the victim and the crime scene and delivered to him in gallon-sized tin cans at the state police lab.
They included a portion of the charred sweat pants removed from the victim during the autopsy; two sections of rug from the edges of the bedroom where the body was found; a piece of the red and white down comforter that Cantor had been lying on, and a tissue sample from the victim, Mazzarella said.