Anthony Oddone Could Be Home for Christmas

Anthony Oddone, the Farmingville man whose conviction in the death of Andrew Reister at a Southampton Village bar in 2008 was overturned last week, gets a chance at freedom on Monday when the judge who oversaw his last trial determines his bail a second time around. 

Oddone, 31, will appear in Suffolk County Court on Monday for a bail hearing, Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota's office confirmed late Friday night. His next court date, according to the online court calendar, had been scheduled for Jan. 8, 2014. The DA's office did not say what prompted the change.

A jury convicted him of first-degree manslaughter for causing the death of Reister, who was working as a bouncer at Southampton Publick House. Oddone was dancing on a bar with a woman in August 2008 when Reister, 40, asked them to get down. Oddone refused and put Reister in a headlock, causing Reister to go unconscious. Southampton Village police arrested Oddone, who fled the scene, about one mile away from the bar. Reister died two days later. 

Ultimately, Oddone claimed self-defense and the jury acquitted him of murder, but convicted him of first-degree manslaughter, as a lesser offense. 

Oddone was sentenced to 22 years in prison, but an appeals court later shaved five years off his sentence. 

But, in a 7-0 ruling issued on Dec. 12, the New York State Court of Appeals tossed Oddone's conviction and subsequent 17-year sentence, and ordered a new trial.

The court found that evidentiary rulings then-Suffolk County County Justice C. Randall Hinrichs made not permitting the defense to refresh a witness's recollection with a statement the witness had previously given about how long the headlock lasted was improper.

After Oddone was indicted on a second-degree murder charge, he was held without bail. Hinrichs denied a request to amend the bail in September 2009 after members of The Bridge, an exclusive golf club in Bridgehampton where Oddone worked as a caddy, offered to post $1 million and oversee a house arrest, according to a report at the time. 

Oddone will appear before Hinrichs, now a state Supreme Court justice, in court in Riverhead on Monday at 11 a.m.