A 60-year-old homeless sex offender has been arrested for the murder of an Italian art dealer inside the victim’s SoHo apartment, police said Monday.
Larry Powlis was caught shoplifting at a TJ Maxx in Midtown Sunday — and when police ran his name they realized he was wanted for strangling Egizio Panetti, 67, inside the victim’s Spring St. apartment near West Broadway two years ago, police said.
Powlis was then charged with murder.
The victim, who was legally blind, was found dead 1 a.m. on Sept, 22, 2024 by a neighbor who routinely checked on him because Panetti had cancer and had earlier not answered her call, police sources said.
Detectives from the start suspected Panetti had been murdered.
He had gone out in Greenwich Village and met Powlis, sources said, the two then seen on video later entering his apartment, where Powlis spent the night.
Powlis was later seen on video leaving the apartment wearing different clothes, his camouflage pants left behind in the victim’s apartment.
Panetti’s death was not classified a homicide until December 2025, when the city Medical Examiner ruled the he had been asphyxiated.
Detectives did not yet have probable cause to arrest Powlis, sources said, and at some point he left town.
Powlis has a sex offense conviction in Texas, sources said. He was awaiting arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court Monday.