'KILLER'S' UNDERWORLD
'ACTRESS SLAY' ILLEGAL LIVED IN BASEMENT DEN

By HEATHER GILMORE and DOUGLAS MONTERO
LUIS HERNANDEZ

November 12, 2006


-- Diego Pillco, the teen accused of killing indie-film actress Adrienne Shelly for fear he would be deported, lived in hiding with his illegal-immigrant relatives in a basement boiler-room hovel owned by their construction boss.

Access to the dungeonlike lair the 19-year-old shared with his brother Wilson and cousin in Greenwood Heights, Brooklyn, is hidden behind the main stairs of a three-story brick apartment building. A small door leads to narrow plywood steps and the windowless underground home.

Placed around the dingy space last week were a pair of dusty construction boots, a collection of religious icons, bottles of Crown Royal whiskey, pirated soft-core porn, Spanish horror DVDs - and receipts for money wired back home to Ecuador.

A living room is set up in the boiler room, and there are two makeshift bedrooms, a kitchen area and a bathroom.

The three worked for their landlord, Luis Hernandez, owner of the BCG construction company, who charged them about $100 each per month for their three dim rooms. He docked their pay for the rent money, neighbor Frank Diaz said.

Pillco was arrested Monday and charged with second-degree murder.

He was working for Hernandez on Nov. 1, renovating a West Village apartment, when Shelly, who also wrote and directed and had an office in the building, complained about the noise.

She threatened to call the cops, and Pillco, fearing his illegal status would be discovered, followed her to her upstairs apartment and knocked her to the ground, police said.

Thinking the blow had killed her, Pillco hanged Shelly by a bedsheet from the shower rod to conceal the murder as a suicide, police said.

Last week, a medical examiner discovered that the hanging, rather than the blow, killed Shelly, who was married and had a 3-year-old daughter.

Diaz said Pillco moved in with his two relatives in the summer of 2005. His cousin said the accused murderer still owed $12,000 for "the journey" from his hometown of Cuenca to New York and that he had assumed responsibility for the debt after Pillco's arrest.

Diaz said Pillco's cousin was taken away in a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at about 6 a.m. Thursday. Several other accused illegal immigrants were hauled from the basement of the house next door - also owned by Hernandez, he said.

ICE spokesman Marc Raimondi confirmed agents were at both addresses at the time but would not provide further details. Construction boss Hernandez, 51, who said he hired Pillco despite his illegal status, told The Post, "I don't know what happened to those guys. I wasn't told about an arrest."

Witnesses said Hernandez and a group of his workers attempted to remove all evidence that illegal immigrants had been living in the basements of his adjoining buildings Thursday - carrying out furniture and personal items from the Prospect Avenue address.

"He doesn't want any more trouble, the jig is up," one neighbor said.

Pillco shared one tiny bedroom with his brother. Their matching beds were kept neatly made.

On a bedside table lay a receipt for a $50 money transfer from Pillco to his father in Cuenca, dated three days before the grisly murder.

"They never went out, except to go to the store or go to work," Diaz said. "They were pretty quiet. They kept to themselves. They only spoke Spanish."

On the wall hung a picture of two small kids. A simple shrine to a Catholic patron saint, adorned with flowers and prayer cards, was kept below the photo.

In the corner near the bedroom door was a cheap TV. On a nearby shelf were a collection of Spanish horror and smutty films featuring women dressed as schoolgirls posing on the cover.

Next to the DVDs was a stack of photographs, mostly of relatives in Ecuador at barbecues and some of Pillco and other young men drinking and playing up to the camera.

A tattered loveseat was in the middle of a common area. A sheet covered the cushions on the two-seater. The walls were lined with exposed pipes and water meters. Another cheap TV was perched before the small couch. The ceiling was low. Paint cans and building supplies filled the corners.

Only a few personal items were in the shoddily fitted yet tidy kitchen and bathroom.

Pillco's parents, Manuel and Mercedes Salto, both 54, told a reporter in Ecuador that their son was a polite, sweet boy who flew to Mexico and sneaked across the border.

Another illegal immigrant from Pillco's hometown said he paid $9,500 to "coyotes" for a similar journey in 2001.

Juan, 23, now a waiter at a Manhattan restaurant, said he crossed the Mexican border by walking, catching cabs and wading through rivers to get to Texas. The trip took about a month and ended with a Greyhound bus ride to New York.

"I was very scared. I thought immigration would stop the bus and ask us for identification," he said.

Juan said he was shocked and saddened to learn of Shelly's slaying - and Pillco's alleged involvement.

"It's bad on his part because it makes the rest of us look bad. It gives the authorities a reason to try and get us and force us to leave," he said.

heather.gilmore@nypost.com


http://www.nypost.com/seven/11122006/news