Sentencing for Darnell Festus adjourned to August 27

Sentencing for contract murder of L.I. Attorney adjourned to August 27   The sentencing of a Queens man convicted of first degree murder in the 2008 shooting of a Long Island real estate attorney was adjourned today to August 27.   Darnell Festus, 25, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison without parole for shooting 44 year old James DiMartino to death in a Commack restaurant parking lot.  Jurors deliberated for four days, convicting Festus last month of first degree murder, second degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder   State Supreme Court Justice C. Randall Hinrichs explained that the court had received an anonymous letter alleging another person shot DiMartino to death.  The court granted a short adjournment to allow defense counsel to investigate.   Four months ago, Festus’s codefendant, Ronald Thornton, 39, of Nesconset, was convicted of concocting the murder plot to prevent DiMartino, his business partner, from connecting him to a series of fraudulent mortgage deals.   Thornton is serving a sentence of life without parole in the Five Points Maximum Security Correctional Facility in upstate New York.