UTICA, N.Y. (WKTV) - A high- profile killer from the days when Central New York was plagued by organized crime, is free after 26 years in prison.

It was the early 1980s. The body count grew as organized crime dominated local headlines almost daily in Utica and surrounding areas. One of the victims was a 23 year-old woman named Dawn Grillo.

Oneida County Court Judge Barry Donalty - then a member of the State Attorney General's Organized Crime Task Force - went to grand jury and got an indictment against three men: Anthony John D'Amico, Dominic Bretti and Donato Nappi, forcing the trio to stand trial for Grillo's murder.

Supreme Court Judge Michael Daley was a prosecutor in 1982; he tried the case, winning a murder conviction against all three.

It's been 26 years, but his memory of the case still remains clear.

"It was a very difficult trial," Judge Daley said. "It literally could have gone either way. But luckily the jury accepted the prosecution's theory of what occurred as opposed to the defense theory."