Trial For Huntington Station Murder To Start Monday

By Jano Tantongco

jtantongco@longislandergroup.com

Adam Saalfield. Photo/SCPD

The alleged killer of a former Walt Whitman High School senior is expected to stand trial at the Suffolk Criminal Court in Riverhead this Monday.

The defendant, 22-year-old Adam Saalfield, faces a second-degree murder for the killing of 18-year-old Maggie Rosales.

Robert Clifford, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Thomas Spota, said in an email Tuesday that jury selection began on July 19. A full jury of 11 members was selected.

The trial was originally expected to begin in February, but State Supreme Court Justice John Collins adjourned the trial on Feb. 25 because of an apparent failure by the prosecution to test a rape kit, according to a report published in Newsday.

Rosales’ body was found on Lynch Street in Huntington Station just before 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 12, 2014.

As previously reported by the Long Islander, Assistant District Attorney Raphael Pearl said that nearby surveillance footage showed someone approach Rosales from behind. She was wearing earbuds at the time. After a struggle, the pair fell to the ground, and the attacker dragged Rosales behind a vehicle before placing a knife to her throat and slicing two times.

Police found a blood trail from the scene leading Saalfield’s Leyden Street home in Huntington Station. Pearl previously said that DNA from that trail was linked to Saalfield.

Saalfield was arrested on Oct. 29, 2014 after outpourings of frustration from the community in light of a series of violence that plagued Huntington Station within the span of a year.

Incidents from that period also include the death of Daniel Carbajal, who was fatally shot outside a Huntington Station home in July 2014; the fatal stabbing of Luis-Ramos Rodriguez in June 2014 in an alley behind Melissa Restaurant; and the murder of Sarah Strobel in October 2013