Nassau Man Gets Life In Prison In Retrial Of 1998 Murder

FREEPORT, NY — A Freeport man was sentenced today to life in prison without parole for murdering two men outside of a bar in Baldwin in 1998.

John Pierotti, 66, was convicted on Feb. 28, 2020 of two counts of first-degree murder and second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.

Pierotti was originally convicted in a trial in 2000 but the conviction was reversed in 2020 by a federal appellate court due to claims that Pierotti could not hear during his trial. A retrial was ordered at that time.

“For the past 22 years, John Pierotti has shown absolutely no remorse for murdering Gerard Kennedy and Willis Frost,” said Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas. “He senselessly shot these two men at point blank range outside a bar. The Kennedy and Frost families have suffered greatly these last two decades and I thank them for their extraordinary perseverance during the retrial.”

According to Singas, Pierotti arrived at the Dragger Inn in Baldwin around 1 a.m. on Dec. 23, 1998 armed with a handgun. The two men — 36-year-old Gerard Kennedy and 41-year-old Willis Frost — had left the bar and were sitting in a van nearby. Pierroti knocked on the driver's-side window and got into an argument with the two men. Pierroti shot Frost in the chest at point-blank range, and then shot Kennedy in the eye as he tried to run away.

Pierotti was arrested in February 1999 by Nassau County police.