Who is Leslie Lescano? Prostitute's ex stuffed NYC Cipriani chef's corpse in trash can after spiking his drink
QUEENS, NEW YORK CITY: A Queens prostitute was interrogated back in August 2019 in the death probe of a prominent New York City chef, Andrea Zamperon. Now, the man she was allegedly dating at that time, Leslie Lescano, has been arrested for the murder charges.
A year-and-a-half after the brutal murder of the 33-year-old head chef of Cipriani Dolci, Zamperon, Lescano has been jailed on Monday, February 8, morning. According to the police, he conspired with his ex-gal pal and prostitute Angelina Barini to lure the chef to Kamway Lodge, then spike his drink with a date-rape drug, before committing the brutal murder.
RELATED ARTICLES
Officers came to the chef’s room in the boarding house at around 8:30 pm and encountered the stench of decay masked with incense when Barini opened the door, court documents say. “Barini answered the door and quickly shut it,” the complaint says. A few minutes later, Barini opened the door again, releasing from the room a “strong odor consistent with the smell of a dead body and burning incense.”
Lescano is charged with conspiring to distribute a controlled substance, for which he faces up to 20 years in prison. The complaint states that their ill-fated series of events began on August 16, 2019, when Barini sent a message to Lescano on Facebook, saying: “I got a biznes opratunady for ya… I cute to the chase then i am willing to pay for ur services [sic] … Are u with it?” Lescano, also known as Ken Ween, replied, “Yes my queen,” federal prosecutors allege. After Lescano agreed to help her, he booked a room at the flophouse, which rents for as little as $67 night, according to the criminal complaint.
On August 18, 2019, Lescano and Barini drove to the motel, and she later went out and then returned with Zamperoni at 4:58 a.m. and told Lescano to hide in the bathroom. When Lescano emerged, he allegedly told authorities that Zamperoni was passed out on the floor, and Barini then handed him the doomed chef’s AmEx card.
Later, Lescano went to a nearby Rite Aid to buy gift cards and personal hygiene products for Barini. “Can u bye anthing shampoo condionerand [sic] body wash,” she requested before dispatching him to a deli to buy food with the stolen plastic, according to the criminal complaint. “Milk ceril reason brln cold cuts cherder chese [sic] cigs.”
Video footage captured Lescano leave a white plastic bag with the purchases on a bench outside the motel at 6.32 am. He told Barini he had tucked Zamperoni’s credit card inside a pack of cigarettes. A few minutes later, Barini is seen on surveillance footage retrieving the bag, the complaint says. The Investigators found a garbage can in the corner stuffed with bedsheets and a human foot sticking out. They also found drug paraphernalia, plus bleach, an electric saw and an empty suitcase. At that time, back in 2019, Barini told authorities that her pimp and several other men discussed whether to cut up the body, saying he wouldn’t let her call 911.
She stated that she met the chef three days prior when he paid her for sex and she gave him a variety of drugs, like cocaine and ecstasy. He then began bleeding from the mouth and nose and did not wake up.
During a search of the room, authorities found “a glass containing a purple liquid with powder at the top of the liquid and around the rim, glass pipes commonly used for smoking narcotics and bottles of bleach and bleach-covered towels, electronics, a saw and an empty suitcase.” Lescano also revealed that Barini used “liquid G” referring to GBL to knock men unconscious so she could rob them.
Prosecutors stated that two other men were also found dead in other Queens motels days apart back in July, 2019, with fentanyl in their systems, also connecting Barini to their deaths. She was spotted on surveillance footage in both cases. In the same year she was indicted for these two cases but has not been charged for crimes related to Zamperoni. Barini has 25 prior arrests for drugs and prostitution since 2001.