In disturbing new developments in a case of a Long Island music teacher charged with killing his sister-in-law, prosecutors claim to have evidence the suspect practiced a chokehold on a stuffed animal minutes before the deadly crime. Joseph Horner was in court Wednesday as he faces charges of rap ing and murdering his sister in law whom he had lusted after for years. “He’s a cold, calculated, vicious killer,” said Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly. Prosecutors described the chilling June attack. The 27-year-old Horner allegedly choked 25-year-old Victoria Castle, who lived in a downstairs apartment in the same Massapequa house on North Oak Street he shared with his wife. According to the DA, Horner asked Castle to help him move a piano keyboard, to which she complied. When he went to her apartment to get the piano bench, he launched his attack from behind. “He put her in a choke hold until her body went limp. He then removed her clothing, placed her on her bed, and raped her,” said Donnelly. On Monday, the DA’s office revealed a photo from inside Horner’s own home that showed him mock choking a pink stuffed rabbit just minutes before he did the same thing to Castle. “The same method he allegedly used to violently end Victoria’s life,” said Donnelly. Investigators say Horner had lusted after his sister-in-law since meeting her in 2017, when he was in college and dating her older sister. “Even as he stood at the alter in 2023 and married the victim’s sister, his dangerous fixation on Victoria never wavered,” the DA said. He even accepted a Facetime call from his wife around the time of the attack, prosecutors said, and allegedly acted as though nothing was wrong. He called 911 himself after the attack was over. Police said they found him on the front stoop, and without emotion told them what happened. Donnelly said Horner told police “I did it, she’s downstairs. I’ll wait here.” The DA added that the Castle family “treated this defendant as one of their own, completely unaware of the monster lying within the lust he concealed for a decade.” ...read more read less