Joey Comunale was brutally murdered last year — stabbed as many as 15 times, tossed from a fourth-floor window, buried in a shallow grave near the Jersey Shore.

The theory of why alleged killers James Rackover and Larry Dilione acted is that there was an argument over cigarettes at the apartment in which Rackover lived, a tragically pointless reason to kill a man, if true.

Now, a third man charged with helping to cover up the case, Dilione's buddy Max Gemma (inset), is trying to get his case tossed out, and it's on some unbelievable technicalities ...

The late Joey Comunale (Images via Crime Watch Daily)

In new documents, lawyers for Max Gemma argue that cops were sloppy in their policework, pointing up some seemingly minor inaccuracies in a bid to have all charges against Gemma dropped.

Via Crime Watch Daily:

Now, in a stunning legal move, Gemma's attorney may be trying to get his case dropped on a technicality. In court papers obtained by Crime Watch Daily, Gemma's attorney claims the lead detective “has given false or misleading statements.”

“Gemma's attorneys are basically saying that the police reports were full of inaccuracies,” said Crime Watch Daily Legal Correspondent Amy Dash. “One example is that detectives allegedly wrote the wrong street address where they interviewed Gemma. One says that the street address started with 225, when in actuality Gemma's attorney says the number was 255. Another example is that one detective said that he saw Max Gemma on surveillance video wearing 'a red long-sleeved T-shirt.' But Gemma's attorney says if you look at the surveillance video, it's very clear that he was wearing 'a red short-sleeved shirt.'”

Seems like a stretch!

If this move fails, I'm wondering if Gemma will cut a deal to testify against his friends.

I keep posting about this crime because I refuse to believe there is no gay element to it. It just strikes me as odd that this gaggle of great-looking dudes winds up alone in a ritzy apartment funded by a jeweler who unofficially, er, adopted Rackover, a sexy guy with a long criminal history. Rackover's real last name is actually Beaudoin, but he changed it to match the surname of his quasi-adoptive father, jeweler Jeffrey Rackover, who is getting his sugar daddy ass sued off by Comunale's grieving actual father.

Via NYP:

Jeffrey — whose A-list clients have included Oprah Winfrey, Diana Ross and President Trump — allegedly let James use his black 2015 Mercedes-Benz to haul Comunale’s corpse to Oceanport, NJ, where authorities say James and Dilione burned it and buried the remains in a shallow ditch.

The suit, filed Sunday by Comunale’s father, Pat, alleges the elder Rackover was involved in an “intimate relationship” with James, who legally changed his last name from Beaudoin to Rackover in March 2015 after claiming to have learned Jeffrey was “my real father.”

... The jet-setting jeweler later rented apartment 4C for James, court papers say.

The suit demands unspecified damages on grounds of “violation of the right of sepulcher,” or preventing the dead man’s kin from taking immediate possession of his body for preservation and burial.

... Pat Comunale’s suit also accuses Jeffrey Rackover of “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” claiming his alleged role in covering up Joey’s slaying caused his family “mental and physical anguish” over the three days before his body was found.

Reached Sunday at the Grand Sutton, Jeffrey Rackover declined to comment on the suit.

It seems like there is still more to this case than meets the eye, even a year later.