DEFENDANT TELLS OF ROBBERY GONE AWRY ABOVE A DELI

The robbery above the Carnegie Deli last month was supposed to be easy and
without weapons, a defendant told the police in a statement released at his
arraignment yesterday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.

But it slipped into a triple murder, the defendant, Andre S. Smith, 31,
wrote in the statement, describing how his partner, Sean Salley, who is now
a fugitive, shot the five people in the Midtown apartment where marijuana
was bought and sold.

"I saw Sean walk over calmly to each person and shoot each one once in the
back of their heads," Mr. Smith wrote. "The noise it made was like `boom,
boom, boom, boom,' one right after the other."

"My heart was racing," he wrote.

Mr. Smith, of Irvington, N.J., is now charged with three counts of murder
and told the police that every day since the killings he has thought: "Dear
God, please forgive me. I feel so bad for being a part of this whole thing."

Mr. Salley, 19, a former production worker for a funk band, has arrest
records in Brooklyn, Buffalo, Massachusetts and Georgia on charges that
include assault, robbery, weapons possession and fare evasion.

Mr. Smith said nothing yesterday at his arraignment. He has an extensive
arrest record and was on parole for a violent 1993 robbery at the time of
the shootings and robbery above the Carnegie Deli on May 10.

In his six-page statement, Mr. Smith described himself as a reluctant
participant in a robbery proposed by Mr. Salley, whom he had met through a
friend.

The police have not said who they believe pulled the trigger, although
initial accounts suggested that the survivors heard a man named Sean
arguing with the apartment's tenant, Jennifer Stahl, before the sound of a
gunshot.

In Irvington, Mr. Smith had been talking about his need for cash when Mr.
Salley told him, "I know where to get some money," and described a woman
who "sells weed to the high-class music industry people."

Mr. Smith said he asked, " 'Are there any weapons?' Sean says, 'No, it's
nothing like that. It's going to be easy.' "

Planning to meet that evening, the men went about their routine. Mr. Smith
said he picked up his son from karate school, dropped him at home, then
went to pick up Mr. Salley. "He came down, got in the car and said to me,
'I got something.' Then he showed me a black revolver."

The two drove to West 55th Street, parked up the block and walked to the
apartment of Ms. Stahl, 39, a former movie actress who sold marijuana from
her sixth-floor apartment, often keeping large amounts of cash. "The lady
whose crib it was said, 'Hey Sean, what's up?' " Mr. Smith told the police,
adding, "And she looked happy to see him."

Awkwardly holding his gun, Mr. Salley started to secure the other people in
the apartment with duct tape. So Mr. Smith took the gun and followed Ms.
Stahl into an adjacent room, demanding that she put drugs and money in the
bag he had brought.

Because Mr. Salley was taking so long to tape up the people, Mr. Smith
said, he offered to help. He put the gun on the floor and worked on taping
the last person.

He said he then saw Mr. Salley pick up the gun and head to the back of the
apartment where Ms. Stahl was, and heard a shot. He said he saw Ms. Stahl
on the floor, not moving. "What happened, yo?" he said he asked, and Mr.
Salley responded, "It slipped by accident."

Mr. Smith said he grabbed the bag of money and drugs and was struggling to
open the apartment door. "I was confused and felt worked up in the head
from hearing the gunshot," he said.

And that is when he said he saw Mr. Salley calmly shoot the four others.
(Two survived and one identified Mr. Smith from a lineup.)

Mr. Smith and Mr. Salley left the apartment walking slowly, he said, and
then raced down the stairs. When they got to the car, Mr. Smith said he was
yelling, " 'If the first one was an accident, why'd you have to shoot those
other people?' Sean said, 'Man, they knew me.' "

His partner "was like an animal," Mr. Smith said, and showed no remorse.
Afterward, Mr. Smith divided the proceeds, giving Mr. Salley $1,500 and six
bags of marijuana.

But Mr. Smith said he was troubled. "I looked in the mirror and said, 'My
life is over,' " he said. "I was thinking that those poor people didn't
deserve to die."