Less than a year after he was escorted from Fire Rock Pizza in downtown West Palm Beach in handcuffs by Federal Marshals, 36-year-old Thanos Papalexis has been handed a life sentence today for murder by a British court. A London jury dealt Paplexis a guilty verdict on September 4 for his slaying of an aging warehouse caretaker in London; the man had been tortured, strangled, and dumped in a ditch. Papalexis believed the caretaker stood in the way of a property deal that would revive his ailing fortunes. He was said to be millions in the hole to investors.
Papalexis, who was sentenced to serve a minimum of 20 years today, had cut quite a figure on the island before his arrest. He'd moved into a $3 million mansion in Manalapan five years ago; he'd thrown a benefit for Hilary Clinton's presidential campaign attended by both Bill and Hill. The London Evening Standard says Papalexis was chummy with Mayor Lois Frankel, and that Bob Cuillo was an investor in one of his health club projects.
The Guardian quoted Detective Inspector Brent Hyatt outside the courthouse: "Papalexis has proved to be an enormously arrogant, compulsive and practised liar driven by his desire to make money."
Juice wonders: How many local characters does that little description fit?
