A Nebraska man allegedly killed a registered sex offender last weekend because he believed he posed a threat to children in the neighborhood.
KPTM reported that James Fairbanks, 43, fatally shot Mattieo Condoluci, 64, inside Condoluci’s Omaha home. Fairbanks’ ex-wife, Kelly Tamayo, allegedly stated that her ex-husband first learned of Condoluci’s sex offender status while researching homes to purchase or rent in the neighborhood.
According to the news outlet, Tamayo also said she believed Fairbanks killed Condoluci because her ex-husband spent years rehabilitating abused children.
Fairbanks, an Omaha Public Schools employee, was suspended in light of last week’s slaying. Tamayo told KPTM that her ex-husband previously worked in correctional facilities and group homes.
Further, Tamayo told the Omaha World-Herald that Fairbanks called her Tuesday and revealed “what he had done and that he was turning himself into police.” She said he “was apologetic and asked me to tell the kids that he loved them.”
Speaking with KPTM, Tamayo said she believed Fairbanks was alarmed because Condoluci had a swing set and wooden playhouse in his backyard. Condoluci’s landlord told the news station that Condoluci installed the equipment last year, when his brother and young nephew visited him from out of state.
Condoluci was convicted of attempted lewd or lascivious assault upon a child in 1994 in Florida and sexually assaulting a teen girl in Nebraska in 2007.
One of Condoluci’s victims, Anthony Smith, reportedly died of a drug overdose in 2017. Smith’s mother attributed her son’s substance abuse issues to the sexual trauma he endured as a child.
“He had a really hard time being around people, he felt he had social anxiety being around people,” she told KETV.
In Smith’s case, Condoluci accepted a plea deal and served four years’ probation. Smith’s mother explained that prosecutors offered the deal because they believed it would’ve been difficult to convict Condoluci.
Investigators believe Fairbanks confessed to killing Condoluci in an email sent to various news outlets, including the World-Herald and KETV.
Fairbanks, who has no criminal history, was charged with criminal homicide. Condoluci’s daughter denounced Fairbanks’ alleged actions but told the World-Herald that her father’s accused killer deserves probation.
“Murdering my dad was a horrible thing,” she commented. “But children are much safer now, any other child he could have hurt is much safer.”
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[Featured image: James Fairbanks/Handout; Mattieo Condoluci/Nebraska Sex Offender Resistry]
