Suffolk prosecutors say a Huntington Station man killed his mother-in-law in her Melville home a week before last Christmas.
Brandon Palladino, 23, pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder at Suffolk County Criminal Court in Riverhead and was remanded by Judge Robert Doyle to the Suffolk County Jail on Tuesday.
The grand jury indicted him on one count of intentional murder and the second charge is for murder committed during the course of a burglary, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Tom Spota.
Prosecutors say Palladino killed Dianne Edwards, 59, avice president for Advantage Title company in Huntington, who died of neck compression after she was found unconscious and bleeding in the upstairs bedroom of her West Hills Road home on Dec. 17, 2008.
Palladino has pending charges of criminal possession of a controlled substance for heroin arrests in March and September of this year, prosecutors added.