Brother of Dead Bigamist Charged

BALDWIN HARBOR, N.Y. (AP) â€” Police said a man hired two thugs to shoot his bigamist brother's legal widow to death so he could profit from the brother's estate. <br><br>Aly Dominique, 44, was

Wednesday, November 1st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

BALDWIN HARBOR, N.Y. (AP) â€” Police said a man hired two thugs to shoot his bigamist brother's legal widow to death so he could profit from the brother's estate.

Aly Dominique, 44, was charged Tuesday with attempted murder.

Eliette Dominique, 56, was hospitalized in stable condition and under police guard after two gunmen ambushed her in her Long Island driveway as she left for her job at a hospital early Monday.

Her Brooklyn brother-in-law and one of the alleged shooters, Alexander Exama, 19, of Newark, N.J., were found hiding in bushes near her home. Exama was also charged with attempted murder. Another suspect was being sought.

``Thank the Lord,'' Eliette Dominique told the New York Post after learning of her brother-in-law's arrest. ``I knew it was him. I'm very happy they got caught.''

The gunmen fired at least five shots, police said. Bullets hit her hands and grazed her head before she crawled back into the house and collapsed in front of her two teen-age children, who called police.

Police said Aly Dominique paid the hit men a few thousand dollars in a bid to claim control of the estate of his brother, Jean-Claude Dominique, 50, who died after a still-unsolved hit-and-run on April 30, 1999.

While investigating Jean-Claude Dominique's death, detectives discovered that he had two families, one in Long Island and one in New Jersey. Three months ago, a judge made Eliette Dominique the legal widow, ruling that her signature had been forged on a divorce decree.