DEAD MEAT:
Gilberto Valle (above) was found guilty of plotting to kidnap wife Kathleen, a verdict that left his mom, Elizabeth, stunned yesterday outside a Manhattan court.
The jury convicts Gilberto Valle of kidnapping conspiracy yesterday. (Reuters)
Jurors convicted cannibal cop Gilberto Valle yesterday because they were convinced he would actually kidnap, rape, cook and eat his wife and other women — rejecting the defense that it was all just fantasy.
“Clearly, we believed his fantasy was going to step into reality,” said juror Victor Pineiro, 48, of Manhattan, hours after finding Valle guilty of conspiracy.
“He was often the instigator of these conversations [about women he planned to eat]. The reality was the charges had nothing to do with kidnapping or attempted kidnapping. It was conspiracy.”
The former NYPD cop faces a maximum of life in prison, thanks in large part to his wife, Kathleen Mangan-Valle, who tearfully testified about discovering his sickening online obsession.
Valle also was convicted of using a law-enforcement resource to stalk his would-be victims.
“We felt he had been using that police database network to go through with it,” Pineiro explained.
Pineiro, providing a look into how the Manhattan federal jury handled reams of gruesome evidence, said the 12-person panel was initially divided over whether Valle truly intended to carry out the grisly plots that his lawyers insisted was sexual-fantasy “role play” with depraved pals.
But on the fourth day of deliberations, Pineiro said, “we got to a point where it was universal. It ended up being an organic decision.”
“I will say that no one in the jury room felt good . . . But I can go to sleep tonight and know the right thing was done today,” added Pineiro, who got onto the jury despite admitting that he had visited one of the porn sites that Valle, 28, frequented.
Jury foreman Ceaser Monitto, 61, of Bronxville, said “it wasn’t just one piece of evidence, there was many pieces of evidence” that cooked Valle’s defense.
“We had to make sure the conspiracy was there. We did that by putting the facts together,” Monitto said.
What finally convinced the six-man, six-woman panel “was Internet interactions and correspondence on the Internet,” he said.
Monitto also said there were “one or two” members of the jury “who were unsure of the facts and they had to see some of the evidence in a different light than they had before.”
But they eventually came around, and “everyone did it on their own accord, there was no coercing or anything like that,” he said.
“We really put our minds together and at the end of the day we did what we needed to do.”
One of Valle’s intended victims, college student Kristen Ponticelli — whom Valle described as “the most desirable piece of meat I’ve ever met” — was overjoyed by the verdict.
“I’ve never been this happy in a long time,” said Ponticelli, 18, who was apparently targeted through Facebook because she attended Valle’s alma mater, Archbishop Molloy HS in Queens. “It’s just a relief.”
Cops at the 26th Precinct in Morningside Heights — where Valle worked until his arrest last year — said the verdict stunned them.
“We still don’t know what he did wrong. He didn’t have any duct tape,” one cop said. “It was some kind of fantasy in his mind. We didn’t think he would actually do it or carry it out.”
Valle, who did not testify in his own defense, slumped in his seat and bowed his head upon hearing the verdict a little after 11 a.m.
He then fought back tears as he embraced his lead defense lawyer before being led off in handcuffs to await his sentencing on June 19.
US Attorney Preet Bharara said the verdict showed that Valle’s “detailed and specific plans to abduct women for the purpose of committing grotesque crimes were very real, and he was guilty as charged.”
Yet law-enforcement sources said the feds feared the case could end in an acquittal on the top charge of kidnapping conspiracy.
“It was always going to be tough going on this,” one source said. “Obviously, the jury was disturbed enough by what they saw.”
Valle’s mother, Elizabeth, said she was “shocked” by the verdict, alleging that her son’s wife “perjured herself” on the stand, without elaborating.
Lead public defender Julia Gatto vowed to appeal, calling the jury’s decision “a devastating verdict for us” because “we truly believe in our client’s innocence.”
“Obviously, the case involved thoughts that were unusual and bizarre and, frankly, very ugly, and we think that the jury just couldn’t get past that,” she said.
Lurid testimony at Valle’s trial revealed reams of disgusting online correspondence in which he and three co-conspirators discussed the kidnapping and cannibalization of women Valle knew, including his wife, a former Teach for America volunteer.
Kathleen was the star witness, weeping as she recounted how she found her newly wed hubby’s plans on a laptop computer they shared.
She then fled with their infant daughter to her parents’ house in Nevada — and called the FBI.
Other intended targets included two female friends from college and an unrequited high-school crush. Additional reporting by Larry Celona & Josh Margolin