Daniel Pelosi Murder Case: Timeline of a Deadly Love Triangle

A look at the major events surrounding a murder in the Hamptons.

ByABC News
March 5, 2012, 12:53 PM

March 6, 2012— -- intro: In what was one of the most sensational trials in recent memory, New York electrician Daniel Pelosi, 41, was convicted of second-degree murder in the bludgeoning death of millionaire Wall Street investment banker Theodore Ammon, 52, seven years ago.

Prosecutors said he was angry over a proposed divorce settlement presented to Ammon's estranged wife, Generosa. Pelosi had been romantically involved with Generosa, and later married her.

Since being convicted in 2004, Pelosi says he is innocent and claims Generosa and his friend Christopher Parrino are responsible for Ted Ammon's murder.

On Wednesday at 10 p.m. ET, "20/20" re-examines the Daniel Pelosi murder case as part of a limited series, "Revenge For Real." Here is the timeline of events.

quicklist: 1category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 1983: Ted Ammon Meets Generosa Randurl: media:15852879text:Investment banker Ted Ammon, shown here, meets aspiring artist Generosa Rand, while she is working as a real estate agent to make ends meet.

Michael Shnayerson, a contributing editor for Vanity Fair who later wrote about the Daniel Pelosi case, told ABC News in a 2003 interview that he learned that Rand called Ammon after he missed an apartment showing appointment in 1983.

"He was looking for an apartment and made an appointment and forgot about it. And the next day at the office he got an angry call from this woman who was the rental agent who said, 'how dare you stand me up' and he was sort of charmed. She was fiery," Shnayerson said.

quicklist: 2category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 1986: Ted Ammon and Generosa Rand Are Marriedurl: media:15852821text:The dashing Ammon, who made his first $50 million by the age of 42, marries Rand, shown here, in a Cinderella-like ceremony -- Rand was an orphan who had spent part of her life in foster care.

The couple, very much in love, moves to a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.

quicklist: 3category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 1987: Generosa Ammon, the Homemakerurl: media:15852634text:Generosa Ammon occupies her time by decorating their many homes, including a townhouse in Manhattan and their elegant mansion at 59 Middle Lane in East Hampton, shown here. Ammon spends thousands of dollars on contractors.

"There was a situation where a landscaper went with Generosa to a nursery and they picked out tulips," Michael Shnayerson told ABC News in a 2003 interview. "Over the weekend he came back to find her like a crazy woman ripping out all the tulips because the shade was wrong."

quicklist: 4category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 1992: The Ammons Adopt Twinsurl: media:15852651text:After several attempts to try to have children of their own, the Ammons adopt 2-year-old twins, Gregory and Alexa, from Ukraine. The children are raised with every luxury, including private schools, private planes and a British nanny, Kay Mayne.

The family seems picture perfect.

quicklist: 5category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 1999: The Ammons Move to Englandurl: media:15852730text:The Ammons move from New York City to Coverwood, a $6 million estate with 22 rooms in Surrey, England, shown here. Ted frequently travels back and forth to New York City and Generosa suspects her husband is having an affair.

"I think that there were disturbing signs of temper, of kind of irrational anger that would flare especially when she felt in any way rejected or challenged," Shnayerson told ABC News in a 2003 interview.

quicklist: 6category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2000: Generosa Ammon Files for Divorce, Has Affairurl: media:15852782text:The Ammon family moves back to New York City and Generosa files for divorce, asking for $1 million a year in living expenses.

Around Thanksgiving, she begins an affair with Daniel Pelosi, shown here in this undated photo.

Generosa had hired Pelosi, an electrician from Center Moriches, Long Island, to supervise the $4 million renovation of her new Fifth Avenue townhouse. Pelosi is a convicted felon who had been imprisoned twice for drunk driving.

"I went from a guy who walked into an electrical job to becoming the boss. I thought I hit lotto. I really did," Pelosi told ABC News in a 2003 interview.

quicklist: 7category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2001: Generosa Ammon Moves in With Daniel Pelosiurl: media:15852911text:The Ammon divorce is a nasty, bitter one. Generosa flaunts her relationship with Pelosi. The new couple becomes a fixture in the Hamptons and moves in together at a swanky Upper East Side hotel.

"If you're a very vengeful, paranoid, irrational, soon-to-be ex-wife, what better punishment to inflict than shacking up in the Stanhope, in a $1,500 a night suite, with your new boyfriend, the electrician, and the kids right there in the next room and having him essentially be their surrogate father? It drove Ted absolutely nuts," Shnayerson told ABC News in a 2003 interview.

quicklist: 8category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: October 2001: Ted Ammon Is Found Deadurl: media:15853131text:Just days before the divorce papers are to be signed, Ted Ammon is found bludgeoned to death in his East Hampton mansion. It is the first homicide in the Hamptons in 20 years.

Investigators learn that Generosa will inherit the bulk of Ted Ammon's $80 million estate, despite the pending divorce, because Ammon had not updated his will before his death.

Pelosi, who helped installed the security system in the Ammon home, becomes a person of interest.

quicklist: 9category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title:2002: Generosa Marries Daniel Pelosiurl: media:15852922text:Generosa and her two children move into Pelosi's house, shown here, in his hometown of Center Moriches, Long Island.

The couple marry in January 2002 -- just three months after Ted Ammon was found murdered. Shortly after, Generosa learns she is dying of breast cancer.

quicklist: 10category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2003: Generosa Pelosi Dies, Nanny Gets Custody of Twinsurl: media:15853141text:In July 2003, Generosa leaves Pelosi and moves with her two children back to the East Hampton mansion, where Ted Ammon was killed. That same month Pelosi signs a $2 million post-nuptial agreement.

On Aug. 22, 2003, Generosa Pelosi, then 47, succumbs to breast cancer. In her will she appoints Kay Mayne, the nanny and her current caretaker, as guardian of her then 13-year-old twins. Mayne is left the run of the mansion along with $1 million. The twins receive the bulk of Generosa's multimillion-dollar fortune, but her husband Danny Pelosi receives nothing -- Generosa had cut him out of her will before she died.

Pelosi takes Generosa's ashes to their hangout, the bar at the Stanhope Hotel, shown here.

"I'm not saying I'm the most normal guy in the world. I do spontaneous, wacky things," Pelosi told ABC News in a 2003 interview. "My wife had just died. I'm not entitled to be a little wacky?"

Ted and Generosa's daughter Alexa Ammon lives with Kay Mayne in the East Hampton mansion. Her twin brother, Gregory, is sent to boarding school in New Hampshire.

Pelosi remains a suspect in Ted Ammon's murder and continues to challenge Generosa's will and the post-nuptial agreement.

quicklist: 11category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2004: Daniel Pelosi Is Convicted of Murderurl: media:15854134text:In March 2004, Daniel Pelosi is arraigned for second-degree murder and held without bail.

Just before the trial begins in September 2004, lead prosecutor Janet Albertson alleges that Pelosi threatened her children, tampered with a juror and admitted to committing the crime.

"I don't have to have a defendant threaten my own children," Albertson said.

After an eight-week trial and three days of jury deliberations, on Dec. 13, 2004, Daniel Pelosi is found guilty of murdering Ted Ammon.

quicklist: 12category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2005: Daniel Pelosi Gets Maximum Sentenceurl: media:text: On Jan. 25, 2005, Daniel Pelosi is sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.

That same year, Ted Ammon's sister Sandra Williams is awarded custody of the Ammon twins.

"The point is we can provide the most loving, stable home for them, no question" Williams told New York magazine at the time. "And it's absolutely what their father would have wanted."

quicklist: 13category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2006: An Alleged Witness Speaksurl: media:15852869text:Daniel Pelosi's friend and former employee Christopher Parrino, pleads guilty to one count of hindering the prosecution and one count of criminal facilitation.

At his own sentencing hearing in 2006, Parrino testified that he drove with Pelosi to Ted Ammon's home the night of the murder. He said Pelosi planned to confront Ammon about the divorce. Parrino also claimed he saw Pelosi run from the East Hampton home that night, with blood on his clothes, saying he got in a fight with Ammon and said "I think he's dead."

Parrino was sentenced to six months in jail in March 2006.

quicklist: 14category:'Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons'title: 2012: Daniel Pelosi: 'I Did Not Kill Ted Ammon'url: media:15854157text:It's been seven years since Pelosi was convicted of murdering Ted Ammon. Ammon and Generosa's son Greg Ammon also produced a documentary this year called "59 Middle Lane."

Pelosi is appealing his conviction and now says his wife Generosa and former employee Christopher Parrino are responsible for the murder.

Parrino, through his lawyer, adamantly denies any involvement in the murder and says Pelosi ruined his life.

"The bottom line is I did not kill Ted Ammon," Pelosi tells "20/20" in a recent interview from prison. "Generosa did not kill Ted Ammon. She had him killed."

Watch "Revenge for Real: Murder in the Hamptons," on a special edition of "20/20," Wednesday, March 7 at 10 p.m. ET/PT