Handyman is arraigned in the killing of veteran indie-film actress in Manhattan

NEW YORK â€”  A handyman accused of killing an indie-film actress was ordered held without bail Tuesday and placed on suicide watch.

Diego Pillco, 19, confessed to the slaying of Adrienne Shelly, 40, Assistant Dist. Atty. Marit Delozier said at Pillco’s arraignment.

“He admitted he fought with the victim, tied a sheet around her neck and dragged her to the bathroom, and hanged her from a curtain rod,� Delozier said. “The medical examiner has made it clear, crystal clear, that the victim died of compression to the neck.

“This is an especially egregious case.�

The exact cause of death has not been determined, but the preliminary medical finding contradicts Pillco’s claims that he believed she died when he knocked her out with a punch to the face during an argument, authorities said.

Pillco showed no emotion during his arraignment on second-degree murder charges.

He stood next to Thomas Klein, his attorney, and was informed of what was being said by a Spanish translator.

Klein spoke to Pillco at length before the arraignment, a law enforcement source said, but the lawyer declined to comment outside court.

Shelly was in a number of independent films, including “Trust� and last year’s “Factotum,� with Marisa Tomei and Matt Dillon.

Shelly also had written and directed her own films.

She lived in Manhattan with her husband, Andrew Ostroy, and their 3-year-old daughter, Sophie.

Ostroy dropped her off Wednesday morning at a Manhattan building where she kept an office.

Later in the day he returned to find the front door unlocked. Shelly was hanging dead in the bathroom in what police initially thought was a suicide.

But there also was a an unidentified sneaker print on the toilet.

The autopsy was inconclusive, and as the medical examiner was conducting more tests, detectives explored other possibilities, police said. Detectives spoke to a number of people, including Pillco’s co-workers, who said he had argued with Shelly, police said.

Pillco, who came to New York from Ecuador in July, allegedly illegally, was picked up midnight Sunday at his Brooklyn basement apartment.

His sneaker print matched the print in Shelly’s bathroom, Delozier said, and he made written and videotaped confessions.

Pillco told detectives that he had been helping to renovate an apartment directly under Shelly’s and she had confronted him about the noise, police said.

Tensions during the argument were exacerbated at least in part because Pillco speaks very little English, authorities said.

Police said Pillco had told them Shelly slapped him and he snapped.