michael o. allen

By Michael O. Allen, Record Staff Writer | Thursday, February 27, 1992

The Record (New Jersey) | 5 Star | NEWS | B01

A Passaic man who was charged Tuesday with killing a Lodi grandmother committed suicide in the Bergen County Jail early Wednesday.

Robert Irving, 20, the boyfriend of the victim’s 16-year-old granddaughter, was found in his cell by a corrections officer who had come to deliver breakfast, said Bergen County Prosecutor John J. Fahy.

“He choked himself with the shoelace, and there was a sock that was found in his mouth also, but I haven’t received all the details at this time,” he said.

The prosecutor said his office will investigate the suicide, the third since May and the fifth death in the jail since March. “It’s something that I’m going to be looking at,” Fahy said. “I am disturbed that people are committing suicide in the jail, and it does not appear as if, perhaps, the proper procedures are in place to make sure that this does not happen.

“I am familiar with the 20 or so other county jails in the state, and I don’t know of this happening with this kind of frequency at the other jails.”

Irving had been accused of strangling Ann Roma Li Gregni in her home at Avenue C last Thursday. Her body was found wrapped in a blanket in a basement closet.

At 3 a.m. of the day of the killing, Irving climbed into the bedroom window of Li Gregni’s granddaughter, Dawn, who lived with her, and spent about two hours there, Fahy said. Dawn is not suspected of involvement in the crime.

Irving, who was in the house without Li Gregni’s knowledge, returned after she left 7:30 a.m. to take her granddaughter to Immaculate Conception High School in Lodi.

“We believe that he didn’t know she would be there,” he said. “The grandmother’s pattern was to get up, drop the granddaughter off at school, go to work, then come back home.”

But Li Gregni, who disapproved of her granddaughter’s relationship with Irving, had been ill and had not reported to her job as a billing clerk at Gibraltar Plastics in Lodi for a few days. She was seen dropping off Dawn at the school 7:45 a.m., then bought bread at a Lodi bakery.

The loaves later were found on her kitchen counter.

Meanwhile, Irving let himself into the house with a key Dawn had given him two years ago, Fahy said.

“Irving probably assumed the grandmother would not be home, and he was just hanging out at the house. Then she surprised him by coming into the house. From there, we ended up with a murder,” the prosecutor said.

Li Gregni’s daughter, Elaine Tufaro of Garfield, became concerned when she could not reach her mother, Fahy said. The woman had not called in sick to work. Tufaro then called Lodi police, who found her body at 11:10 a.m. Thursday.

An autopsy performed Friday revealed that she had been strangled, Fahy said.

Investigators discovered that her pocketbook, keys, and 1987 Honda Civic were missing, the prosecutor said. A neighbor saw the car leave the house about 8:25 a.m. but did not see who was driving, he said.

“He was a suspect from the beginning. He was always our suspect,” Fahy said.

He added that Li Gregni family members knew Irving often entered the house through Dawn’s bedroom window and left through a basement window to avoid Li Gregni.

On Friday evening, a Passaic patrolman saw the car in an unpaved parking lot adjacent to an apartment building at 75 Hope St.

Authorities then watched the car during the weekend, but removed it when no one came for it. The Bergen County Sheriff’s Department’s Bureau of Criminal Identification processed it for fingerprints, and a positive identification of Irving’s fingerprint was found on the shift handle, Fahy said.

Irving was arrested at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Passaic apartment he shared with his mother and siblings. He was charged with murder and theft, and bail was set at $1 million.

Bergen County Undersheriff Mary Ellen Bolton said Irving did not appear to be a suicide risk when he was brought to the jail at 10:55 p.m. Tuesday. “The inmate was brought to the booking area, and a general assessment was conducted by the medical staff and determined that he was acceptable for general population,” she said.

“Had this gentleman been identified as a risk for suicide, he would have been put in a separate unit in the jail annex and put under suicide watch.
“At 5, he was identified as awake and alert. At 6 a.m., he appeared to be sleeping when an officer made his rounds. And at 7:05, the officer attempted to wake him to serve him his breakfast, and he was identified as deceased.”

Bolton said the Sheriff’s Department’s Detective Bureau was conducting an investigation into the death. Irving was alone in the cell.

Sheriff Jack Terhune was on vacation and unavailable for comment.

Irving’s mother, Millie, did not wish to comment. John Bethea, who said he is a family friend and next-door neighbor, said Irving was “one of the quietest kids.”

“I’ve never seen him do anything,” he said. “To me, he was one of the perfect kids didn’t drink, didn’t do nothing.”

Fahy said Irving had a “substantial criminal record,” including serving a one-year term on a narcotics charge and an arrest last month on an arson charge.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections said Irving was paroled in October. He had been in the state prison system since November 1990 on a narcotics charge, she said.

Two other suicides occurred in the jail in the past year.

In May, Christian F. Shane, 21, of Fair Lawn hanged himself in his cell with a sheet tied to a bar above his door.

John Russell of Fair Lawn, who was jailed Aug. 23 for violating probation, hanged himself in a shower with his shoelaces. He had spent about a month in Bergen Pines County Hospital for psychiatric treatment.

The two suicides led to staffing changes in the jail, including the addition of a second officer in its psychiatric ward.

ID: 17369970 | Copyright © 1992, The Record (New Jersey)