Man Charged in Hatchet Killing Linked to Satanism : Crime: Court records and victim’s grandson say David Condry collected items related to devil worship.

A loner charged with the hatchet murder of an 89-year-old Glendale woman collected objects related to Satanism, including a photo bearing the words “Human Sacrifice Would Open Up The Gates Of Hell,” court records and the dead woman’s grandson said Friday.

David Condry, 30, is scheduled to be arraigned at 9:30 a.m. Monday in Glendale Superior Court on one count of murder in the death of Josephine Adinolfi. Condry was also charged with one count of attempted murder for an alleged hatchet attack on Adinolfi’s grandson, Augie Pisano, 44, just before Pisano discovered his grandmother’s body Feb. 8.

Both men lived with Adinolfi at 703 Salem St. in Glendale.

According to an affidavit by Glendale Police Homicide Investigator William Currie filed with a search warrant application in Glendale Municipal Court, Condry admitted after his arrest that he had struck Adinolfi in the chest and hip with the hatchet.

As he was being booked at the Glendale city jail, the affidavit said, the booking officer “discovered that the suspect was wearing a pentagram (a five-pointed star associated with satanic rituals) pendant on a chain around his neck, and that he also had in his possession a photograph, apparently cut out of a magazine, depicting a demonic face with the words “Human Sacrifice Would Open Up The Gates Of Hell,” and “Sisters Linked To Satanic Torture Kill.”

According to the police affidavit, Pisano told officers that as he returned to the residence Feb. 8 and walked down a darkened hallway “he was attacked by suspect Condry, who was yelling and wielding a hatchet above his head.”

According to the affidavit, Condry “struck at witness Pisano twice, but Pisano was able to jump out of the way and was not struck. Witness Pisano backed into the kitchen from the hallway, with Suspect Condry still screaming and striking at him with the hatchet. While in the kitchen, Pisano was struck twice on the left abdomen area and once on the left shoulder. Pisano managed to overpower Condry and take the hatchet from him.

“Pisano then calmed Condry down and asked him where ‘Grandma’ was. Condry said she was in the bedroom. Pisano checked the bedroom and saw that victim Adinolfi was naked and slumped over on her bed . . . not breathing.”

In an interview Friday, Pisano said he suffered a two-inch gash on his stomach and multiple bruises in the attack, but still managed to overpower Condry and take the hatchet from him.

Pisano, who said his grandmother allowed Condry to live rent-free in a guest house behind her home periodically for seven years because she regarded him as “like another grandson,” said their relationship deteriorated when Adinolfi found a book with the word “Satan” inscribed on its cover in Condry’s bedroom about 1 1/2 years ago.

His grandmother searched Condry’s apartment and turned up 100 books on various satanic practices, about 30 candles, and a censer--an incense-burning container used in Roman Catholic religious ceremonies--Pisano said.

Pisano said that shortly afterward, he returned from his job as a supervisor at the Worldway Postal Center near Los Angeles International Airport to find Condry’s satanism books burning in the family’s barbecue. After that, Pisano said, Condry purchased several rosaries and would attend Mass several times a week with Pisano’s grandmother.

Relations between Condry and Pisano’s grandmother improved but remained shaky, Pisano said. Adinolfi ordered Condry to move out about four months ago, Pisano said. Condry ignored the order after a screaming quarrel, but there did not appear to be unusual tensions between the two in the weeks leading up to her death, he added.

Condry was introduced to Adinolfi when several men brought him to Southern California from Las Vegas to meet a friend who was living in Adinolfi’s guest house. Since the woman was about to move out, Adinolfi invited Condry to take her place, Pisano said. He repaid her by doing odd jobs.

Pisano lovingly described his grandmother as a “sharp Italian woman” who would climb her back-yard trees to shake off lemons and make macaroni from scratch.

“If you came over she would invite you in for a cappuccino, and the next thing you know you would be living here. She was just a very giving person,” Pisano said.