By Yepoka Yeebo
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A crane rigger accused of killing seven people cringed as a coroner described the mangled bodies of workers found after an Upper East Side crane he was responsible for collapsed on them, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
William Rapetti, owner of Rapetti Rigging Services, admitted to federal investigators that he had failed to check the polyester slings that were supposed to hold the crane in place before the fatal 2008 collapse on East 51st Street, prosecutors said.
Lawyers failed in a bid to show full-color autopsy photographs on the 50-inch screen in the court room, but Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Roger Hayes called the photographs some of the most graphic he'd ever seen, the Post said.
Rapetti faces charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and falsifying documents. He faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
