A 20-year-old man accused of a grisly triple homicide that was splashed across New York City tabloids yesterday is a Carroll County resident who was on probation in Maryland for a brazen robbery.

Steven Santos is accused of breaking into an apartment Wednesday in New York's Lower East Side, fatally shooting Ray D'Amelio in the head as he slept, then drinking a bottle of D'Amelio's whiskey and watching pornographic videos on his television.

Police say Santos, who had been working as a cook in two Carroll County restaurants, had been in New York for two weeks before the crimes. He also is accused of fatally shooting a couple - ages 86 and 88 - in the same building. The pair, Sara and Larry Sprung, were longtime friends of New York Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who with Mayor Michael Bloomberg expressed shock over the killings that outraged New York.

A New York Post headline yesterday read: 3 DIE IN THUG'S DRUGGY RAMPAGE.

Santos was found by police near the apartment in a daze an hour after the execution-style killings. Police say he admitted to the crimes.

Santos, a New York native who lived in Manchester for the past year or two, had been arrested four times in Maryland and was on probation for an armed home-invasion burglary that shocked prosecutors.

The probation stemmed from his guilty plea in January to the Manchester-area home invasion. He also pleaded guilty to an attempted break-in. During both crimes, he brandished knives and terrorized women.

Clarence W. "Buddy" Beall III, the prosecutor in the case, had asked the judge for an 18-month jail term.

"This guy was a vagabond out of New York and a different kind of burglar, breaking into homes in daylight with people home," Beall said yesterday.

But Circuit Judge Michael M. Galloway imposed a suspended eight-year sentence instead.

Before the New York case, Santos had a good probation record in Maryland, testing negative for drugs and checking in with his officer twice a month, said Racine Winborne, spokeswoman for the Division of Parole and Probation.

A Carroll County judge signed a warrant for his arrest yesterday on probation violations including leaving the state and possessing a gun.

He was arraigned in New York yesterday and charged with three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree burglary.

Santos, who worked as a cook at a diner and a Roy Rogers in Carroll County, is described by former co-workers as an outgoing young man with a New York accent who liked to break-dance as he closed the restaurant.

"He never had a temper around here," said Heather Corbin, front-end manager of Plum Crazy diner. "He was always cracking jokes."

Santos' record also consists of marijuana possession, a Florida warrant and a probation violation pending in a 1998 New York City case for criminal contempt and menacing.

A few weeks ago, Santos reportedly got into a fight with his live-in girlfriend and she asked him to leave their apartment in the 4400 block of Hanover Pike.

He went to New York to live with his grandmother and called his probation officer June 6 to tell him where he was, Winborne said.

The officer told Santos to come back to Carroll County by yesterday or he would report him missing.