A week ago, a Staten Island man was fatally stabbed outside of a restaurant where he and his high school sweetheart had been celebrating their recent engagement. Suspect Redinal Dervishaj was tracked down in Chicago this week and arraigned Friday on murder charges in the stabbing of 27-year-old Antonio Lacertosa. Despite fleeing the state after the incident, Dervishaj's lawyer claims that his client acted in self-defense: "I believe there were several people who were potentially attacking my client," lawyer Thomas Reilly said outside Staten Island Criminal Court. "It looks like he has a decent self-defense case."
Lacertosa, fiancee Bridgette Schneider, his brothers and their friends had been out celebrating the engagement Friday evening; they ended up at España Restaurant for celebratory drinks around midnight. Two of the brothers were allegedly kicked out (possibly for drunkness), and they retaliated by urinating on the side of the restaurant. A fight started with restaurant workers—manager Ridi Zeneli allegedly tried to shoot at them, but his gun's trigger jammed.
A cop who saw surveillance video said, "The video was like a WWF Royal Rumble...People were being tossed on top of cars; it was crazy." Police sources say Dervishaj can be seen on a surveillance tape running back into the restaurant after getting tossed over a parked car. He allegedly grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen, and stabbed Lacertosa around 2 a.m. on Saturday morning during that melee.
Dervishaj is a reputed Albanian gangster; according to the Post, Dervishaj and a fellow Albanian gangster threatened to kill a Queens man in 2007 if he didn't pay $20K—when the man refused, there was a shootout. In the end Dervishaj pled guilty to attempted grand larceny and was sentenced to time served.
