The son of a New York Supreme Court judge believed to have beaten his mom to death was a boozy stoner college dropout whose parents feared for his future.
Douglas Solomon’s mother Diane Gallagher, 65, and his father Charles Solomon are even said to have discussed their fears for their son’s future hours before Diane’s murder.
Douglas then jumped naked to his death from the 16th floor of his family’s aprtment building.
The suspected murder-suicide killer looked like he was going nowhere, his father, esteemed ex-jurist Charles Solomon, 76, told police, according to NBC New York.
After attending the tony private school Poly Prep Country School in the leafy, upper middle class Brooklyn neighborhood of Park Slope, the boy was recruited to be a lacrosse player at Rhodes College in Memphis.
But Douglas ended up quitting the team and dropping out before graduating about two years ago and spent the next few years living at home in his parent’s apartment, smoking pot and drinking.
The son and the father did not have a good relationship, the former judge told investigators, according the NBC; ironically it was his mom, Diane Gallagher, 65, that he was closest to.
The couple talked about getting their son back on track, but it’s not clear if anything was resolved.
When Solomon went to work at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, he told police that both his wife and son were asleep in their beds.
Police believe that sometime after that, Douglas Solomon beat Gallagher in the head with a bedside lamp, according to the network’s affiliate.
The mother had suffered blunt force trauma to the face and head. She had a gash on her forehead and behind her right ear, the station reported. Cops told the station that she may have been choked as well. The lamp was found nearby.
Around 10:30 a.m. a neighbor heard arguing coming from the family’s apartment.
‘I heard a bunch of voices. I thought it was construction workers arguing,’ one resident told the New York Post. ‘I thought it was just people angry with each other.’
Then building residents heard the sound of Douglas screaming as he plummeted to his death. Investigators told the paper that his body showed scrapes like he had forced himself through a narrow window.
Police found the young man’s naked body in the building’s courtyard.
‘I think it’s quite obvious he may have been suffering from depression or some other mental illness and was using alcohol and weed as a way to cope with his problems,’ a friend told the New York Post.
‘[Him and his mom] always seemed to have a good relationship like others have said and I just wish things didn’t turn out the way they did because this is just a terrible thing for anyone to go through.’
Neighbors mourned the loss of Gallagher, who they described as an ‘amazing person.’
‘A great mother, a great wife, a great everything and really a great friend,’ a neighbor who went by Martine told the Post.
Police said the investigation is ongoing and that there was no history of domestic violence or mental health issues in the family.
Charles, who most recently worked for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office after retiring in 2017 following a battle with cancer, could not be reached for comment.
The judge, who served on the city’s Supreme Court for three decades, oversaw the nightclub shooting trial for Sean Combs, better known as P-Diddy, in 2001.
He was also the judge who heard the infamous Lorna Santiago 2010 murder case, passing a guilty verdict on Michael Lenahan, who strangled Santiago to death and lay in bed with her corpse for two days.
Charles’ last high profile trial came in 2017, when he approved a plea deal for one of the Russian prostitutes allegedly hired by former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, whom the disgraced governor accused of extorting him.
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