TROY – The discovery by Schenectady police of a bicycle locked outside a Hamilton Hill residence on Dec. 29 was the clue that led to the arrests of two men charged in a quadruple-homicide in Lansingburgh, two detectives testified in Rensselaer County Court Tuesday.

A series of videos in which two unidentifiable figures can be seen making their way from the Dec. 22 murder site at 158 Second Ave. in Troy with packages and then picking up two bicycles a block away were the key links in the investigation, according to testimony during the second day of evidence suppression hearings.

Retired Troy Detective Sgt. Michael E. Parrow Sr. testified that police followed the two men from Troy through Albany to Schenectady by tracking their movements through several street and CDTA surveillance cameras. That’s when Schenectady police hunted for the bike that had accompanied the two.

“Schenectady police made a sweep of the area. They found the bicycle outside a Hamilton Street residence,” Parrow said when he was called to the stand by District Attorney Joel E. Abelove.

That was the home of the family of Justin Mann, 24, who was arrested there on murder charges with his co-defendant, James W. White, 38. They are accused of killing Brandi Mells, 22; Shanta Myers, 36; Jeremiah Myers, 11; and Shanise Myers, 5, by tying them up and slashing their throats in their basement apartment at 158 Second Ave. in Lansingburgh. The bodies of the four were discovered on Dec. 26 when a property manager checked on them because they had not been heard of since Dec. 22.

Defense attorneys Greg Cholakis for White and Joseph Ahearn for Mann are attempting to get Rensselaer County Judge Debra Young to suppress important pieces of evidence against their clients.

Ahearn has mounted an attack on the way State Police Investigator Jason DeLuca questioned Mann, in the defense attorney's attempt to build a case that Mann's constitutional rights were violated. Cholakis began constructing a case around the videos showing two figures going into 158 Second Ave. by walking up the adjoining driveway of 166 Second Ave. and coming back down it with large plastic bags. At issue will be whether the search warrant related to that video was properly written with the correct street address.

Additional video recorded the two walking south down Second Avenue to pick up two bicycles locked to a post near 102nd Street, Parrow said. From there they went into the North Central neighborhood to Sixth and Glen avenues where they left one bike behind and mounted the other on a CDTA bus when they boarded it. Parrow said they rode south to downtown Troy where they switched to a bus to Albany and from there made a final transfer to Schenectady.

DeLuca testified that the two men were also caught on video riding empty-handed to Troy from Schenectady on a CDTA bus.

More for you News Suppression hearing in quadruple Troy homicide spins...

Ruling out the use of the video and Mann’s statements would endanger the prosecution of the case. The two defendants are each charged with nine counts of first-degree murder, four counts of second-degree murder, one count of first-degree burglary, one count of second-degree robbery and two counts of fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property.

The indictment accuses the defendants of stealing an Xbox video game system and flat screen television from the apartment. Eight of the first-degree murder counts are related to the robbery and burglary charges.

During his redirect examination of DeLuca, the district attorney dealt with DeLuca’s confirmation to Ahearn that he had lied to Mann during his interrogation of him. DeLuca testified that it is legal for investigators to lie to suspects during questioning.

Ahearn returned to questioning DeLuca about whether he violated Mann’s rights to not answer questions. Ahearn asked DeLuca if it was true that Mann declined to answer questions 20 to 23 times in the four to five hours of interrogation. DeLuca said he didn’t have any idea about that. He maintained that Mann never directly invoked his right to be silent.

The suppression hearing resumes Thursday morning at the county courthouse. The trial is scheduled to start Sept. 10.