Dying Man’s Eye-Blink Signals Send Friend to Jail for Gun Play

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. —  A man whose fatally wounded friend identified him as the assailant via eye-blinking signals was sentenced Tuesday to six months in jail.

“God brought him back for a few moments to communicate with detectives,” Westchester County Court Judge John LaCava said of the deathbed identification made by Frederick Sannicandro, 38.

Sannicandro died six hours after his friend, Frank Zollbrecht, shot him in the abdomen as they were working in a Yonkers bakery last year.

As Sannicandro was being wheeled into surgery, detectives and an attending physician questioned him about the shooting. They asked him to respond by blinking once for “yes” and twice for “no.”

Sannicandro blinked “yes” when asked if it was Zollbrecht who had shot him, and “no” as to whether the shooting was accidental, according to trial testimony. He could not speak because he had a breathing tube in his throat, officials said.

Zollbrecht had a history of heavy drinking, according to testimony. During drunken horseplay, he got a gun his boss had hidden and shot Sannicandro.

The defense maintained that Sannicandro’s deathbed testimony should not have been admitted as evidence because Sannicandro also was drunk at the time.

Zollbrecht was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide and could have been sentenced to four years in prison. The judge ordered him to spend five years on probation after his prison term, to do 1,000 hours of community service and to get treatment for his psychological problems.