Nicholas Pecararo is led into the Essex County courthouse by police officers in January 2000 to testify in the trial of Jeffery Glanda. Pecararo was convicted of second-degree murder and Glanda of first-degree murder. Pecararo was released from prison on parole in December 2021. (Enterprise file photo — Victoria Hristovski)

Nicholas Pecararo, a Tupper Lake man who spent 24 years in prison for his role in the murder of Jeannine Glanda in 1997, was released on parole in December.

Jeannine’s children and step-children — Tyler and Jordan Glanda, and Tenielle Gonzalez — all live in the region. They say they are distraught over Pecararo’s release. They’d attended parole hearings every year or so since 2017 in an effort to keep the man who helped their father kill their mother in prison.

Pecararo, now 57, was convicted of second-degree murder as an accomplice and was sentenced to a 20-to-life term in 2000 for helping Jeffery Glanda kill his estranged wife.

Jeffery Glanda was serving life in prison without parole for first- and second-degree murder when he died in 2019 at Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville at the age of 69.

On Dec. 8, Pecararo was released from Cayuga Correctional Facility to a transitional housing facility in Franklin County, where he was living before being incarcerated.

Pecararo began to be eligible for parole in September 2017. He was denied parole then, and at two other parole hearings since, until now.

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“Victimized all over again”

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Tyler was “disgusted” by the board’s decision and said it was “inexcusable.”

At the latest parole hearing, he read the confession Pecararo gave police in 1997, detailing what he did to his mother.

“He killed her, he tortured her, in her own home,” Tyler said. “For him to be released is beyond me.”

Tenielle said the state was “failing” her family.

Tyler feels the board did not take his and his siblings’ victim statements into account. He felt the board didn’t listen to them. He also said the victim assistance board has not offered much help.

“It’s a pretty cold process,” he said.

If someone is denied parole, they can appeal the decision, but Tyler said if parole is granted, he cannot appeal the decision. He said this continues “victimizing the victim.” Tenielle agreed. She said she feels “victimized all over again.”

While Pecararo can’t visit the towns where Jeannine’s children and step-children live, they still feel unsafe.

Pecararo indicated in his parole hearing he wanted to live in New York City to be away from the site of the murder, but was released locally, which troubles Tyler and his siblings, who live around the region. Tenielle said the state told her he can’t leave the county.

Tyler said it’s hard to relax, hard to focus and hard to go about his day-to-day life. Their children carry their family’s concerns, too, he said.

“It’s put a damper in everything,” he said in December. “We’re all just beside ourselves.”

The holiday season was especially tough last year. They don’t know where Pecararo is living and are worried he would try to contact them.

Jeannine was a “selfless” person, Tyler said.

“She was always very much the type that would go out of her way for people,” he said. “She was extremely kind, caring and loved by all people.”

She was also a friend of Pecararo, someone who showed him kindness when Jeffery wouldn’t. But on Aug. 18, 1997 he helped Jeffery kill her and attempt to cover up the murder.

Tyler was 12 years old at the time, and Jordan was 8.

Pecararo’s fourth and final parole hearing was on Nov. 16, 2021.

Initially, the parole hearings were held every two years, then every year. Tyler said he and his siblings have attended every one, giving statements and asking the board to deny parole.

Each time, they would read Pecararo’s confession. This was emotionally taxing for all of them. Tyler said they would “relive” it every time as they read aloud Pecararo’s description of their mother’s murder.

This was painful, but they felt it was necessary.

“Twenty-one years ago, Nick sentenced Jordan and I to a life sentence without our mother. It’s only fair that he serves the same,” Tyler said in 2017.

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What the parole board considered

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Parole is determined by several factors: an individual’s criminal history, accomplishments in prison, potential to successfully reintegrate into the community, perceived danger to public safety, and statements made by victims and victims’ families.

Pecararo did not have much of a prior criminal record and had a good institutional history with only a few minor marks against him and little perceived danger to public safety, according to court records. The main reason for Pecararo’s parole denial in past years was the victim statements.

The parole hearing in November was held by state Parole Board Commissioners Charles Davis, Carlton Mitchell and Ellen Evans Alexander.

Davis and Mitchell voted to grant parole. Alexander dissented.

“I believe people change over time and that is potentially true for you,” Davis told Pecararo.

The district attorney’s office, sentencing courts and Pecararo’s defense counsel did not weigh in on the parole hearing, but others did.

“We do have in your record tons of people in the community who are opposed to your release at this time,” Davis told Pecararo at his hearing. “We also have people in the community who believe in you and want to provide support to you and abdicate for your release at this time.”

This included a letter from his mother and one from the Parole Preparation Project.

Pecararo had a “low” ranking for risk of felony violence, arrest or absconding upon release. He hadn’t faced any disciplinary action since his last parole hearing, but he also had declined to participate in rehabilitation programs.

Davis wrote in his decision that Pecararo’s board interview demonstrated “personal growth and development.” Davis said he showed remorse for the irreparable harm his actions caused, especially to Jeannine’s children.

“I always wanted to say sorry, but I was told by the court not to say anything to them,” Pecararo told the board.

Tyler and Tenielle have said throughout the years that they don’t believe he’s remorseful.

Davis noted Pecararo’s developmental and communication challenges he’s had since childhood.

Tyler said Pecararo is aware of what he did and chose to make the decisions he did. He’s responsible for his actions, Tyler said, and he believes, based on Pecararo’s initial confession, he knew a lot in advance.

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The murder

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On Aug. 18, 1997, Jeffery and Pecararo waited in Jeannine’s home for her to return home. When she did, they attacked her and drowned her with water taken from Upper Cascade Lake between Lake Placid and Keene. They then put her body in her vehicle and Pecararo drove it into the same lake to make the drowning look like an accident.

The attempted cover-up fell apart under police scrutiny.

Pecararo was identified as a suspect, and after being picked up by troopers, agreed to cooperate in arresting Jeffery. He never went to trial, instead taking a plea deal to lower his sentence from 25-to-life to 20-to-life in exchange for his testimony against Jeffery.

Tyler said Pecararo’s account of events to the parole board was “completely different from his original confession.”

Though in his original confession he describes in detail tackling Jeannine, holding her down by her neck until unconscious and then drowning her with the water from Upper Cascade Lake, his account changed as the investigation and trial went on. He gradually distanced himself from the act of murder as the possibility of a death sentence was discussed in the trial, shifting from the role of “accomplice” to “helper.” Pecararo explained the reasons for his multiple stories when testifying in Jeffery’s trial in 2000, saying he was trying to protect Jeffery some times, and other times, he was afraid of him.

He still admitted, “I allowed it to happen,” but said he was not involved directly in the attack.

He said he walked outside and threw up. Jeannine was dead when he came back inside, he said.

In recent years, Pecararo says Jeff tackled Jeannine, held her down and poured the water into her mouth. He says he only carried the jugs and Jeannine’s body. He has maintained for years that he was wrongly charged with second-degree murder.

“I didn’t do what I was supposed to do anyway. I backed off. I couldn’t do it,” Pecararo said in 2018. “He did what he did, and then I took the body and I hid it, like an idiot.”

Pecararo claims that he tried to perform CPR on her right after she went unconscious and tried to revive her with the water used to kill her.

Asked why he didn’t stop Jeffery or back out of the murder, Pecararo said he was paralyzed.

“I froze. I was in shock because of what he was doing,” Pecararo told the Enterprise in 2018. “Their marriage was always on the rocks. He always talked, but he never did anything.”

Jeffery and Jeannine were getting a divorce. Jeffery did not want to give up his money and have partial custody of their two children, so he decided to kill her.

Pecararo was a well-known handyman, landscaper, logger and laborer all around the Tri-Lakes. He did work for Jeffery Glanda and was a family friend, watching the kids grow up as he did odd jobs around the house.

Court documents with statements from Pecararo in the trial two decades ago show he knew about the murder plans for months beforehand. Jeffery had offered Pecararo $10,000, a new truck, a four-wheeler and a snowmobile to help him with the murder.

Pecararo said he does not know why he agreed to join Jeff in his murder.

“He was very manipulating, very good at what he does,” Pecararo said in 2018. “I already had all that stuff. I don’t need any of that.”

At Pecararo’s sentencing, Judge Thomas Moynihan referred to him as another of Jeffery’s victims.

“At the time, I made a really bad decision,” Pecararo told the parole board in November. “I was misled by my peer because I looked up to him like a father, and I trusted everything he said. I made a really bad decision, that was it.”

Jeffery took him on several drives to the Cascade Lakes, making offers if Pecararo agreed to assist him, laying out his plan and scanning the roadside for a spot to stage an accident. In his original confession Pecararo says on one of these trips he agreed to help for the $10,000.

“I told him it was all wrong and it was not a good idea to do, and then he would get really angry at me. So I went along with what he wanted to do,” Pecararo told the parole board. “She was a good person. She didn’t deserve to die.”

Pecararo did time in Cayuga, Sing Sing and Great Meadow correctional facilities.

An interview in 2018 inside Cayuga Correctional Facility showed Pecararo’s hair a bit grayer and his beard a bit fuller than in 1997.

Tyler and Tenielle have families now. They try to shield their family’s past from their children, but they say they’ll hold the memory of Jeannine’s life and death for the rest of their lives.