In Massapequa, Robert Carragher’s relatives mourned in court as Kristin Sculley’s lawyer pressed a self-defense claim.
MINEOLA, N.Y. — The murder case against Kristin Sculley has left two Massapequa families on opposite sides of a courtroom after Robert Carragher was fatally stabbed inside his parents’ home.
Carragher, 28, died June 1 after police said he was stabbed in the neck in his basement bedroom and made it upstairs to his parents. Sculley, 22, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Prosecutors say she attacked him while he slept. Her lawyer says she acted in self-defense after being drugged and threatened with sexual assault. The case is now pending in Nassau County court.
In the first hours after the killing, the focus was on Carragher’s parents. Police said they heard him screaming after he was wounded and tried to save him in the kitchen of their Beaumont Avenue home. Nassau County Police Detective Lt. George Darienzo said Carragher “died in his father’s arms.” He said no family should have to witness a son being killed that way. Those details became the emotional center of the case for Carragher’s supporters, who filled court and cried as prosecutors described his final moments. Friends identified him as Bobby and remembered him for his humor, including friend Thomas Maloney, who said Carragher was “the funniest person alive.”
Sculley’s family has mostly stayed silent in public, but her side of the case took shape through defense attorney Dennis Lemke. At the June 24 arraignment on the indictment, Lemke said Sculley had battled addiction, had relapsed and believed Carragher had given her a drug that left her unable to move. He said she woke to find Carragher trying to sexually assault her and grabbed a knife. “She gave a statement to the police,” Lemke said, adding that she had reported being drugged and assaulted early in the investigation. Prosecutors disputed that version and said Sculley hid in the basement laundry room after stabbing Carragher while he slept.
The courtroom reaction showed how painful the claims were for both families. When the defense raised the self-defense account, a person in court shouted “liar,” according to accounts from the hearing. Prosecutors said Sculley and Carragher had been using drugs together and watching television in the basement bedroom before an argument. They said she pulled a knife from her purse and stabbed him once in the neck. Lemke questioned whether police should have taken Sculley to a hospital immediately for a sexual assault examination. Prosecutors focused instead on the wound, the knife and Sculley’s location when officers found her.
The case has also placed Carragher’s home at the center of a broader legal fight. Police said Sculley and Carragher knew each other for years and had arranged to meet that night. They spent several hours in the basement bedroom before the stabbing at about 1:30 a.m., according to investigators. Officers responding to the 911 call found Carragher on the kitchen floor. They later found Sculley in the basement laundry room near the bedroom with a pocketknife, police said. Authorities have not released the full contents of the 911 call, the parents’ written statements, body camera footage, medical examiner findings or any toxicology results.
Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly’s office secured a grand jury indictment charging Sculley with murder in the second degree. She was arraigned before Judge Robert Bogle and remanded after pleading not guilty. Prosecutors said the charge carries a possible sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison if she is convicted. The indictment does not end the investigation. It starts the next phase, where both sides exchange evidence, file motions and prepare for hearings that may decide which statements, tests and records can be used before a jury.
For the prosecution, the case appears to rest on the claim that Carragher was vulnerable when he was stabbed. Officials have said he was lying in bed or asleep when the knife struck his neck. They are likely to rely on the wound location, the path Carragher took upstairs, the knife recovered from Sculley and witness accounts from inside the home. For the defense, the focus is different. Lemke’s account depends on Sculley’s state of mind, her claim that she was drugged, whether there is medical evidence of an assault or incapacitation, and whether the physical scene can support a sudden defensive act rather than a planned or angry attack.
The public record leaves several gaps. Police have not said exactly what was shown on phones belonging to Sculley or Carragher, whether the two exchanged messages before meeting, or whether any nearby cameras captured their arrival. Officials have not released laboratory results on the knife or any clothing. The court has not ruled on the self-defense claim. No witness has publicly described the full conversation or events inside the basement bedroom before the stabbing. Those unknowns matter because the case turns on a brief moment that only Sculley and Carragher may have directly experienced.
Massapequa residents have watched the case unfold through brief police statements, courthouse appearances and fragments from grieving friends. The killing happened in a quiet residential setting and involved two people from the same community. That has made the fallout feel local and personal, even as the legal process moves through formal steps in Mineola. Carragher’s family has had to hear prosecutors describe his final minutes. Sculley’s family has watched her appear in court in a case that could send her to prison for decades.
Sculley remains held without bail. The next hearing is scheduled for July 24, when the court is expected to take up the murder case’s next procedural steps.
Author note: Last updated July 6, 2026.