This week, as 23-year-old Erick Westervelt was locked up at Albany County’s jail, waiting to be sentenced for second-degree murder, Bethlehem Police seized many of his personal belongings from his cell.

Then, officers went to the Salvia Lane home in Guilderland that Westervelt had shared with his parents and younger brother, and took the family computer.

The police raids are because of an anonymous letter that was sent to the Times Union editor last week. Police say Westervelt may be responsible for the letter, whose author claims to have been involved in the hatchet deaths of Timothy Gray and Peter Porco.

The Times Union editor did not return phone calls immediately Wednesday.

Westervelt was convicted on June 29 for Gray’s death; he will be sentenced on Aug. 25. Bethlehem Police said that, on Oct. 28, Westervelt beat Gray in the head in the Bethlehem home that Gray shared with Westervelt’s former girlfriend.

During his week-and-a-half trial, Westervelt’s defense maintained he was innocent, that he had been at home at the time of the murder.

On Nov. 15, while Westervelt was in Albany County’s jail, Peter Porco was beaten to death in his Bethlehem home and his wife, Joan, was severely injured. Bethlehem Police have since named the Porcos’ youngest son, Christopher, as a suspect. No one has been arrested in that case.

Westervelt’s attorneys, Mark Sacco and Kent Sprotberry, tried unsuccessfully to convince a jury last month that, although Westervelt confessed to Gray’s murder, he did not do it. Rather, the defense said, Westervelt was forced to make a false confession after hours of police interrogation.

Sacco and Sprotberry could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Sacco told The Enterprise the day of Westervelt’s conviction that the real killer is still out there. He speculated that whoever killed Gray also killed Porco, since a hatchet was used in both incidents. The Bethlehem Police, he said, should be looking for the killer.

When The Times Union received the letter, an editor turned it over to the Bethlehem Police, Lieutenant Thomas Heffernan said.
"We treated it like other leads," he said. "We take all leads seriously."

The letter was sent to a State Police lab, Heffernan said, where it is currently being analyzed for fingerprints and other forensic evidence.
"In following up on the contents of the letter," Heffernan said, additional information was obtained that convinced police to apply for warrants to search Westervelt’s home and jail cell.

The lieutenant would not disclose what the information was or why police believed Westervelt was involved.
Asked if he believed Westervelt wrote the letter, Heffernan said, "We’re investigating that."

Westervelt is not a suspect in the Porco murder because he was in jail at the time and could not have been the killer, Heffernan said.
Monday, at the Westervelt house on Salvia Lane, police took the family’s computer and other documents, Heffernan said. He declined to elaborate. Police also took "personal belongings" out of Westervelt’s jail cell, he said.

The seized materials have been sent to a State Police lab for analysis, he said.

Some information in the letter, relating to the Porco crime, is inaccurate, Heffernan said.
Asked what he thinks this means, he said, "It leads us to believe that whoever wrote it just made errors in the facts. That’s why we’re doing what we’re doing; we’re following up."