A Long Island man has been sentenced to 30 years in state prison for fatally shooting two men — including his childhood friend — in the spring of 2022, prosecutors announced Thursday.
Last month, 50-year-old Brian Cordovano, of Ronkonkoma, pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter in the death of Ian Saalfield, 45, and Robert Julian, 59, in what Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney described as a “selfish and inexplicable act of violence.”
According to investigators, Cordovano’s friend Saalfield was reported missing by his wife on April 26, 2022.
She told police the last time she saw her husband had been the previous night when she saw Saalfied and Cordovano leaving the couple’s Lake Grove home around 8 p.m. Her husband never returned home after that.
Both men were in Saalfield’s white 2015 Lexus, officials said.
The car was located by police in a parking lot in Holtsville on May 2 — the same day officials responded to a call of a male suffering from an overdose at a motel in Ronkonkoma.
That man was Cordovano, police said.
While he was transported to a nearby hospital, investigators determined a link between a silver 2004 Toyota Corolla left in the motel parking lot and Cordovano.
The Corolla belonged to Julian, officials learned. When Suffolk County Police reported to Julian’s home in Selden, they found the bodies of Saalfield and Julian inside. Both had gunshot wounds to the head.
Cordovano shot both men at close range, prosecutors said.
The brutal crime, which took place at Julian’s home on April 25, was described by prosecutors as a deadly plan to steal from a friend who no longer wished to loan Cordovano any money, Newsday reported.
Cordovano, who had been charged with two counts of murder, pleaded guilty on Oct. 9 to the lesser charge of manslaughter, as well as robbery and weapons charges.