COLONIE – Soon after U.S. Marine Nicholas Camilli, 24, died in a horrific crash in October 2023, his family erected a memorial at the site on Old Niskayuna Road in Colonie, but because Albany County prohibits roadside memorials, work crews came to remove it.

When that happened, Angela Colloca, Nicholas Camilli’s mother, got permission to move the memorial up the hill, away from the roadside, with the blessing of the private property owner.

“She says, ‘I lost a son at 17-years old, I know what you’re going through,’ Colloca said about the property owner, Rosemary Sneeringer. “I understand and you can have your memorial there as long as you want it. So we did. And it got taken down again.”

On at least three occasions, the memorial was dismantled and removed.

Unbeknownst to the people who removed it, surveillance cameras had been installed at the site and tracking devices were attached to the memorial.

The cameras captured two people removing the memorial. Tracking devices revealed pieces of the memorial had been tossed into dumpsters behind two area car dealerships.

Once Colonie Police viewed the evidence, they arrested James Morrell, Jr. and his wife Megan, charging them with petit larceny. Both have pled not guilty.

According to Attorney Kevin Luibrand, who was hired by the Morrells, his clients didn’t know, and they were never told the memorial had been relocated to private property.

“The arrest came as a surprise,” Luibrand stated. “It’s unfortunate. It’s unfair and it shouldn’t have reached the point it reached.”

Luibrand said after the county initially removed the memorial, his clients were advised by county officials if the memorial went back up, they should remove it themselves.

“I want this family to understand that integrity goes a long way and there’s just no reason for the desecration of the memorial,” Colloca stated. “The only thing I can rationalize is because they’re having some sort of guilty complex.”

Luibrand disputes that assertion, pointing out Nicholas Camilli was traveling at 120 miles per hour on his motorcycle the night of the crash. That claim is corroborated by a Colonie police report.

Luibrand says James Morrell, Sr., father and father-in-law of the defendants, still suffers from PTSD ever since the crash, and that the PTSD was being triggered every time he left his house and saw the memorial at the end of his driveway. According to Colonie police, the senior Morrell was driving the car that collided with Camilli’s motorcycle the night of the crash.

“Mr. Morrell, Sr., crossed the yellow line and in doing so hit my son,” Colloca said. “I assume they don’t want to see the memorial. They don’t want to be reminded of what has happened.”

“The Morrells were acting in good faith,” Luibrand insisted. “They thought they were acting with the authorization and encouragement of the county.”

The Morrells are due back in Colonie Town Court on April 22.

(Editor’s Note: A prior version of this story indicated the Morrell family owns Northeast Acura, that is not the case.)