A former sandwich shop owner has been found guilty on Thursday of brutally bludgeoning an employee to death in 2019 for her incessant complaints about delayed payments and owed back wages.
Georgios Kakavelos, 52, who planned and coerced the tragic death of his employee, Allyzibeth Ann Lamont, then-22, has been charged with multiple counts of murder, conspiracy, concealment of a human corpse, and evidence tampering, Times Union reported.
Kakavelos’ co-conspirator Jimmy Duffy, 35, who was the shop manager at the time, had already pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a sentence of 18 years to life.
On Oct. 28, 2019, Kakavelos and Duffy reportedly pitilessly ambuscaded Lamont into the kitchen in his Local No. 9 sub shop in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, WHIO TV 7 wrote.
Duffy admitted that he used an aluminum baseball bat to strike Lamont in the head four times wickedly. Kakavelos' associate further confessed that the shop owner put a bag over Lamont's head, choked her, and killed her by hitting her with a sledgehammer.
The suspects then left Lamont's body in a wooded area off Exit 13 of the Northway in Malta, which is 35 miles away from the shop. They reportedly returned the next night to bury the remains under cement and fertilizer.
Kakavelos and Duffy were arrested days after the killing.
Prosecutors said that the motive behind the horrific killing was to silence and repress her from complaining about his unpaid dues to his employees, as well as his financial misfortunes.
Lamont had also filed a labor complaint against Kakavelos about his trouble regularly paying employees. She also eyed approaching Kakavelos' wife regarding her concerns.
Kakavelos reportedly faced bankruptcy as he owed the state $70,000 and in Internal Revenue Service more than $122,000.
"We teach our children to speak up when something is not right," trial prosecutor Alan Poremba, first assistant to District Attorney Karen Heggen said. "That's exactly what she did. She spoke up when things weren't right. She just happened to speak up to the wrong individual, and that wrong individual was Georgios Kakavelos, who was willing to commit this heinous, barbaric crime."
Poremba tagged this incident as a heinous crime.
“You have a 22-year-old woman who has so much potential and so much life in front of her," Prosecutor Poremba told the Times Union.
His charges include first-degree murder, second-degree conspiracy, two counts of concealment of a human corpse, and six counts of tampering with physical evidence, CBS6 noted.
Kakavelos sentencing is set to be on Aug. 19, 2021.
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