NY- He was murdered for $30 and a handful of porno tapes.
That was what two Queens teens said in their chilling confessions to killing 55-year-old John Canora of Howard Beach.
“The guy put porno movies [on] and wanted to have sex with me,” according to a statement by Billy Ray Staton that was read at his arraignment yesterday. “I said ‘No.’ I choked him and let him drop when he went limp.”
Later, Staton and pal, Alex Brown, both 17 and of Jamaica, divided up the proceeds of the horrific crime – $15 apiece and a share of the X-rated movies, investigators said.
They told cops they bought a hero sandwich and some candy.
Staton at first blamed the killing on a third pal nicknamed Dee-Bo.
But he later recanted, admitting he and Brown were the only ones at Canora’s meticulously kept home in mid-October when the killing occurred and that they covered their tracks by wrapping the body and hiding it in the basement, court papers say.
Brown, who said he met Staton in jail, confirmed most of the details in Staton’s statement. Brown also said that he “saw Billy choking his friend. Billy told me this is what he does for money.”
The diminutive Canora picked up the much taller Staton and Brown in mid-October in Jamaica, inviting them to his home to smoke dope and watch porn, the teens said. The suspects were nabbed two weeks later, days after a pal was stopped driving one of Canora’s cars, cops said.
Brown and Staton stood still and silent as they were arraigned on charges of murder, burglary, robbery, tampering and criminal possession of a weapon and ordered held without bail by Queens Criminal Court Judge Gene Lopez.
They face life in prison if convicted.