Destination Club Executive Thanos Papalexis To Face Life In Prison After Murder Conviction

By: Destination Club News
Date: September 30, 2009

The British playboy and multiple time destination club executive Thanos Papalexis learned of his fate after being convicted of the murder of Charalambos Christodoulides earlier this month. Papalexis was sentenced to life in prison.

"You are a totally amoral person in the sense that you do not think twice in doing or saying anything which helps you achieve your own ends," said Judge Jeremy Roberts, according to the Guardian. "This was an execution carried out for financial gain. You treated Charalambos as completely expendable."

"You found yourself with a serious problem," Roberts would add. "You decided to take a life of a harmless and innocent human being."

According to the prosecution, Papalexis and two illegal Albanian immigrants savagely murdered Christodoulides in 2000 after he failed to leave his flat inside a warehouse that Papalexis was looking to sell. Christodoulides would be tied to a chair, beaten, and ultimately strangled to death before being doused with paint thinner, wrapped in a bed sheet, and thrown into a mechanic's pit where he would be found two weeks later. Contracts on the warehouse were exchanged the day that Christodoulides was declared missing.

Papalexis would flee to West Palm Beach and be attached to two notable destinations clubs, Grand Legacy Club and Vita Luxury. Both would offer members exclusive access to mansions, a fleet of exotic automobiles, luxury watercraft, and white glove service all under one membership. Neither gained any momentum and were referred to as a "smoke and mirrors" operation.

After years in the states, setting up multiple businesses and even hosting a fund raiser for Hilary Clinton's Presidential campaign, Papalexis was arrested in West Palm Beach while having lunch with his mistress, a Vita Luxury employee, in November and soon thereafter be extradited back to the UK. According to the prosecution, Papalexis could be linked to the crime through fingerprints, DNA on cigarette butts, and cellular phone records that placed him at the warehouse during the killing.

The damaging three month trial painted Papalexis as a remorseless and self serving individual, punctuated by the testimony of Rebecca DeFalco, a Miami-based escort who met Papalexis when he replied to one of her online ads in April of 2004. Testifying for five days in July, DeFalco revealed that Papalexis had admitted to the crime over pillow talk in 2004. During her testimony, DeFalco disclosed that Papalexis had given her lump payments of $2,500 to stop seeing other clients, paid her to have sex with other men while he watched and videotaped, and engaged in "wild sex parties" at mansions he had rented throughout the area. After confessing to the murder, Papalexis had a friend tell DeFalco that he had been taken prisoner in Iraq when in fact he was working in Palm Beach on new projects.

Papalexis would counter, claiming that everything he told DeFalco were white lies and "stories which would make a screenwriter envious."

An 11 person jury deliberated for four days following the conclusion of the testimony, coming back with a unanimous guilty verdict. "Throughout this 14 week trial, Papalexis has proven to be an enormously arrogant, compulsive, and practiced liar driven by his desire to make money," said Brent Hyatt, the officer in charge of the investigation.

Prior to the sentencing, Christodoulides's sister read a prepared statement:

"Regardless of the length of sentence given to Papalexis it will never justify how a multimillionaire playboy can put the value of money over and above the life of my innocent, harmless brother."

"No amount of years will allow me to accept the senseless act resulting in the murder of my much-loved brother."

"Charles was a quiet man, going about his own simple life, harming nobody. Nobody deserves to die in such truly dreadful circumstances."

Based on the British penal code, Papalexis will be eligible for release after spending a mandatory 20 years behind bars. Ylli Xhelo and Robert Baxhiji, the two Albanians tied to the crime, will face a retrial in their cases, claiming that Papalexis held them at gunpoint to participate, a claim that Papalexis called "a total invention."