Murdered Teen Mourned, Ex is Charged with Murder

2008_04_sitext.jpgOver a thousand people visited an Ettingville funeral home to pay their respects to 19-year-old Jessica Tush. Her ex-boyfriend Thomas Paolino was officially charged with her murder, as well as desecrating her body, and his bail was set at $1 million.

Tush was last seen at her job at a Staten Island Mall store on Wednesday, and her body was found in a shallow grave in NJ's Pine Barrens on Friday. Tush was planning on attending the wake of a friend who died in a car crash, and authorities believe Paolino lured his ex into his car by telling her they would drive to the scene where her friend died.

The Staten Island Advance now reports one of her friends had received a text message from Tush saying "A black man is following me." However, the friend was suspicious, because "the text message addressed the friend by her full name, instead of using a nickname or an abbreviation." When Paolino was taken in, he apparently asked investigators if they were looking into the "black man," which, per the Advance, "raised eyebrows" and suggested he sent the message to cover his tracks.

Paolino, whose abusive behavior apparently spurred Tush to break up with him, is pleading not guilty. His lawyer said his client's father is "going to do everything to help his son," while Tush's father said, "I trust they'll do all they can to put this monster away."

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Comments (23) [rss]

Kill your ex and blame it on a black guy. That's a classic. Hope he gets desecrated in jail.

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I think we can skip the trial on this one. Good luck in prison. And don't let the black man follow you, bitch boy.

that old trick only would've fooled babyhitler.

no I wouldn't. It's so obvious, the text said 'black man". nobody from staten island calls black people that. they call them something else.

Is he a necrophiliac too? Yikes.

Wow. I don't have much sympathy for abusive people. Sucks that it ended this girl's life. I feel badly for her family and friends. But it is laughable he's obviously so very dumb too. What was she doing with such a dumbass in the first place?

[7], I wonder about that all the time. All the dumbasses seem to have girlfriends while smart, nice guys are single.

Nice guys still finish last I guess.

I'm guessing you consider yourself a smart, nice guy, Pharmer?

What makes you think she's nice?

He looks like a really nice guy in the photo. Fry the bastard!

wow what a retard, time to get hard on his ass in jail. maybe a black guy would volunteer.

I'm guessing he probably sodomized her.. after the fact.

What is wrong with white people?

Couldn't desecration simply mean chopping up the body while disposing?

8 - nice guys finish last cause they want to so don't complain. You guys respect women too much. Put them on a unattainable pedestal. Take advice from Scarface "First come da money, den da power, den da women".

"What was she doing with such a dumbass in the first place?"

You ever been to Staten Island? Them's slim pickings.

The "desecration" charge, from everything I've read on the case, is simply for dumping her body in a ditch.

Couldn't desecration simply mean chopping up the body while disposing?

I highly doubt that mfib, or else every mob hitman would have the same charge against him. You don't hear that one very often.

But, wasn't he chaged with that first? Just seems like a charge to hold him while they tried to get the evidence to charge him with the murder.

Killed by David Schwimmer with Down's syndrome? Sad.

"But, wasn't he chaged with that first? Just seems like a charge to hold him while they tried to get the evidence to charge him with the murder."

Right. That was the initial charge in New Jersey after the body was found. Not only was the delay on the homicide charge to gather evidence against him on that, but they also hadn't yet determined in which state the killing had taken place, so held off on that charge as the investigation proceeded but were able to hold him on the desecration charge.

He had sex with the corpse and actually cut a few slices from her thigh and ate it.

The guy's gonna go for an insanity defense. I can imagine him turning around and suing the NYPD and various Jersey PDs for not giving him "help" the many times he gotten arrested in the past.

The guy has a long rap sheet, and was actually charged as a juvenile even though he was over 18 for some of his crimes.

He's gonna walk.

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