The Murder Book 2008

July 11th -- 4 dead...arrest made in Patrick Hernandez murder case...

Patrick Hernandez, an 18-year-old black youth, was shot and killed early Thursday in the crime-ridden Far Rockaway section of Queens, according to the Daily News.

On Friday afternoon, police arrested Karon Lenihan, 17, and charged him with Hernandez' murder.

Hernandez, an honor roll student who was to go to college at SUNY Cortland this fall, was shot to death by a thug who jumped out of a passing car, shouted "What now?" and pumped a shotgun blast into Hernandez' chest as his stunned 16-year-old brother looked on, the News story reported. The shooting took place in front of 249 Beach 15th Street at 10:30 a.m. after the brothers had just finished cleaning a neighborhood beach.

Ralphael Jones, Hernandez' brother, told the News: "He stumbled, ran a little bit and then fell down. I said, 'Pat, hold on, hold on.' I held his hand and said, 'Pat, I love you,' but he couldn't say anything. He was trying hard to breathe, and then he just passed."

Hernandez became at least the third teenager killed in Far Rockaway since May. Reportedly, the shooter was an area thug who'd been feuding with Hernandez.

Hernandez played on his high school football team and made a strong impression on coach Walter Wilkerson who told the News: "He was a good leader on the team and a good role model on the field. The other kids looked up to him. I thought he'd be someone who I'd see three or four years from now and say, 'Hey, this kid made it.'"

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Carlos Rios, a 17-year-old Latino youth, was stabbed to death Thursday evening after arguing with Jose Fuentes, 22, at 89th Street and Northern Blvd. in the Jackson Heights section of Queens, according to a brief in the Daily News.

Police say Fuentes stabbed Rios several times in the chest; the teen was taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center but died a short time later. Fuentes was arrested and charged with his murder.

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An unidentified female in her 50s was found bludgeoned to death Thursday in a building on Boynton and Watson Avenues in the West Farms neighborhood of the Bronx, according to a brief in the NY Post. Police arrested the woman who lived in the apartment, 49-year-old Ana Jurado. Reportedly, Jurado hit the unidentified woman several times in the head with a blunt object, and left her on the living room floor. She was discovered after neighbors complained of a foul odor.

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An unidentified 20-year-old Latino male was stabbed to death early Friday morning in front of 2301 Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, according to a police report. He was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. No arrests.

 

July 5th -- 3 dead, including father of four in hit & run...

Marvin Chamorro, a 42-year-old Latino male and father of four, was struck and killed by a speeding hit and run driver at 8:30 p.m. Thursday as he was crossing Castle Hill Avenue in the Bronx, according to a story in the Daily News.

Chamorro (photo left) worked as a butcher to provide for his family. His wife Carmen Martinez told The News: "He was a good husband and a good father. I hope they catch him (the driver). I just want justice. He left the scene - it's not right."

A deli worker who witnessed the accident said: "The car must have been flying. Life is so unpredictable. When your time comes, that's it." Anyone with information is asked to call CrimeStoppers at (800) 577-TIPS.

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Elea-cha Oliver Ragoo, a 3-year-old girl, died last Thursday after allegedly being shaken by her mother's boyfriend who was in jail on assault and child endangerment charges. A story in the Daily News reports that the charges are now likely to be upgraded since the girl's death.

The little girl spent two weeks on life support at Brookdale University Hospital after being admitted on June 21st. Anthony Merritt, 24, allegedly told police that he lost his temper while babysitting at his girlfriend's apartment in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn. He allegedly admitted to shaking the child five times, and hit her head on a faucet, according to the story.

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Kent Gonzalez, a 38-year-old black male, was shot in the chest and stomach early Friday at the corner of Church Avenue and East 17th Street in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, according to a story in the Daily News. He was taken by his friends to Kings County Hospital where he died hours later.

Police said they believed Gonzalez' friends had witnessed the shooting but were not cooperating with the police, according to the News story. No arrests.

June 22nd -- 2 young men dead....

Adolfo Gonzalez, a 25-year-old Latino male, was shot to death, after getting involved in an argument with a driver who had rear-ended the car in which Gonzalez was a passenger, according to stories in the NY Post and Daily News.

Gonzalez, a truck driver, was riding in a friend's black Acura when it was rear-ended by another car at the corner of White Plains Road and Morris Park Avenue in the Bronx. Gonzalez got out to look at the damage and got into an argument with driver Antoine Lewis whom he knew from the neighborhood, according to the News story.

Lewis and friends rode off but hailed a cab, and returned to the scene of the accident where Lewis allegedly shot Gonzalez several times. A gun was later found in the cab, and Lewis was later charged with second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon. Police were investigating whether the car accident was a ruse to get back at Gonzalez for some perceived slight.

The News caught up with Gonzalez' mother Maria Castillo, a special education teacher, who said: "He's the only thing I have. He was a very nice boy - a lovely boy. It's a shame what happened. I have a lot of questions, but I don't have answers to them."

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Darcy Antoine, a 19-year-old black male, was beaten to death on June 14th after leaving a party in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, and his parents and family are determined to find those who killed him, according to a story in the Daily News.

Antoine had left Brooklyn to play football at a college in Pittsburgh but had returned to attend a party. After it broke up, he and some friends had words with another group of young men and several of them stomped and beat Antoine.

Friend Marcos Flores was with Antoine when the fatal confrontation occurred. He told The News: "One of them said, 'What's up, your man spilled a drink on me,' and pointed at our friend. I tried to apologize to tell them it was an accident ... but they jumped us anyway. They came at us hard and they had us outnumbered. I saw six kids stomping on Darcy before they ran off. I grabbed him and said, 'Yo, Darcy, you all right?' He was looking right through me and he was twitching and coughing. And then he took one big breath and I knew he was gone."

Antoine's family has posted a memorial for their son at a blog affiliated with his university. To read more about this young man and his senseless death, please click here.  

June 7th -- 3 dead & funeral for Chelsea stabbing victim...

Kyle Smith, a 3-year-old toddler whose body showed signs of child abuse, died Friday after being rushed to Interfaith Medical Center in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, according to stories in the Daily News, NY Post, and NY Times.

Four adults who were in the apartment when a 911 call was made -- including Kyle's godmother and her live-in boyfriend -- were being questioned last night. The News reported that Kyle had been placed with his godmother because his own mother was addicted to crack. Reportedly, the mother surrendered the child to the godmother more than a year ago.

The cause of death will be determined by the city's Medical Examiner but authorities said Kyle's lifeless body showed signs of child abuse.

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An unidentified 44-year-old black woman was found stabbed to death early Friday on Lincoln Place and Albany Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, according to a police report and a brief in the Post's NYPD Blotter.

The woman had been stabbed in the neck and was taken to Kings County Hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival. The Post reported that the police were questioning the woman's landlord with whom she had argued in the past. Reportedly, she had an order of protection out against him.

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An unidentified 41-year-old black male was found shot to death early Friday at Halsey Street near Patchen Avenue in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, according to a police report and a brief in the Post's NYPD Blotter. He was taken to Kings County Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. No arrests.

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The Daily News carried a story about the funeral of Chelsea stabbing victim Margaux Powers who was killed by her boyfriend Jonathan Smith who later leaped to his death off a Wall Street building. The story quotes Margaux' friends as saying Smith probably snapped after hacking into Margaux' email and learning that she was dating someone new. The day Smith killed her, Margaux had asked him to move out of their apartment. He had also just lost a job as a chef at a high-end restaurant and was feeling pressure from all sides.

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Tonight CBS News "48 Hours Mystery" will air the story of Catherine Woods, subject of my book "Death of a Dream". Watch the broadcast and then buy the book co-authored by correspondent Erin Moriarty which has many added details, including the behind the scenes story. Reviewers called the book: "compelling" and "a chilling good read." Available at bookstores under 'true crime' and online.

First chapter available free.

 

  

June 1st -- 3 dead...young woman found dismembered in Chelsea bathtub...

Margaux Powers, a 26-year-old white female (photo left with her father Michael), was found dismembered in her Chelsea apartment bathtub Saturday night, just hours before her boyfriend -- Jonathan Smith, 34 -- apparently jumped to his death from a building in lower Manhattan, according to a story in the Daily News.

Powers' sister and family members became concerned they could not reach Margaux for several days and eventually went to her apartment at 235 W. 22nd St. where they made the discovery and also, according to the News, found an unsigned apologetic suicide note. Powers' body was discovered by her horrified sister Dana when she pulled back the shower curtain. A building doorman told the News that Powers and her boyfriend fought all the time.

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Carlos Rios, a 47-year-old Latino male, was shot to death by an off-duty police police officer in the Bronx late Saturday night after Rios apparently accosted the officer's wife and 3-year-old daughter in an apartment elevator, according to an Associated Press story.

Reportedly, Rios showed the woman and girl a gun as he got into the elevator. She screamed and her husband, the off-duty cop, came to their aid. The attacker was shot but still managed to run from the building but was caught a short distance away. He died soon after.

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Liu Mei Liang, an 85-year-old Asian female, was reportedly killed in an attack last week by a former correction officer who body-slammed the grandmother to the ground while she was doing Tai Chi exercises in Chinatown, according to a story in the NY Post.

Gary Brown, 27, apparently was drunk when he said he accidentally bumped into Liang in the playground of PS 134 on East Broadway and knocked her down, according to the story. Witnesses came forward to say they saw Brown pick her up and slam the woman to the ground, cops said. Liang died two days later at Bellevue Hospital and Brown was charged with her murder, according to the Post story.

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The May Report on the number of homicides this past month will be posted later in the day.

 

 

May 27th -- 3 dead, and manslaughter charges in Brooklyn car death...

An unidentified 68-year-old payroll manager at a Brooklyn construction site was found dead at the work site in the Brownsville section but it remains unclear what killed him, according to media reports.

The death is something of a mystery because there was no work scheduled at the site on Monday -- Memorial Day -- and yet the man's body, with head trauma, was found by another construction worker. It is also unclear why the second man was at the site. The Medical Examiner will determine cause of death. 

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Efrain Lopez, a 34-year-old Latino male, was found shot Monday afternoon at 1760 Andrews Avenue in the Bronx, according to police. He was taken to Bronx Lebanon Hospital in critical condition where he later died. No arrests.

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An unidentified 20-year-old black male was found stabbed just past midnight Tuesday in front of 960 E. 80th Street in Brooklyn, according to the police. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. No arrests.

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Ronald Suriano, 27, the driver of a car that hit and killed a woman at Brighton Beach Avenue in Brooklyn on Sunday, had just finished smoking a PCP-laced cigarette, according to a story in the NY Post. Suriano, who allegedly refused a breathalizer test at the scene, has been charged with manslaughter.

The victim remains unnamed although the Post story says she had emigrated from the Georgia Republic six months ago and was working here as a babysitter.

Police allegedly found syringes and heroin in Suriano's Mercedes. A friend of the victim told The Post that the car appeared to be going 100 mph when the woman was hit and killed. The friend told the Post: "I heard a car coming fast...I told her to stop - but she ran out in front, and all I saw was her flying in the air."

April 26th -- 1 dead, baby taken off life support youngest murder victim of year...

Pablo Paez, an 11-week-old Latino baby, was taken off life support yesterday, three weeks after allegedly being beaten by his 23-year-old mother Kiana (photo left from Daily News) who was immediately charged with second-degree murder, according to stories in the NY Times and Daily News. Paez thus became the youngest murder victim in 2008.

Little Pablo had been on life support for three weeks, since his mother carried his beaten body into Elmhurst Hospital Center. He had a broken leg, broken ribs, skull fractures and bleeding on the brain. An autopsy will determine cause of death. Kiana is being held without bail while Pablo's father Jose, who is not charged, insisted the injuries were the result of an accident.

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Read the full details of the murder that made rocked NYC -- "Death of a Dream" (the murder of dancer Catherine Woods and the trial of Paul Cortez) is now available everywhere by Paul LaRosa & Erin Moriarty. Reviewers called it: "compelling" and "a chilling good read." Available at bookstores under 'true crime' and online.

First chapter available free.

April 13th -- 2 dead in Harlem...

Shamod Murray, a 33-year-old black male, was found dead in a Harlem residential building yesterday after three residents there restrained Murray with a rope after he urinated in the hallway and refused to clean up after himself. The building's superintendent Roger McFarland, and two brothers who lived there -- Dean and Stephan Fuller -- called police to the scene after restraining Murray but, by the time cops got there, Murray was dead.

It was unclear what killed Murray, who lives in a Brooklyn homeless shelter according to the Daily News, but McFarland and the Fuller brothers were arrested and charged with manslaughter. They were later released on their own recognizance (photo left from Daily News) and charges could be dropped if it turns out Murray died from natural causes.

One cop told The News: "The guy wasn't that roughed up. He only had one real laceration. We're not sure why he died."

Saeed Khan, 47, an employee of West Harlem Fried Chicken, located on the building's ground floor, said of McFarland: "He is a nice person. I've never seen him angry."

Residents say the three arrested men were just responding to complaints from tenants of 341 Lenox Avenue about Murray.

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Curtis Jackson, a 26-year-old black male, was shot to death Saturday shortly after he left a party at a Harlem community center, according to briefs in the Daily News and NY Post.

Jackson reportedly was at the Hansborough Recreation Center on W. 134th St. when he another man  exchanged several "hard looks and words," according to The News item.  Jackson left the party but the other man, who was not captured, followed Jackson and shot him in the chest and back. He was taken to Harlem Hospital where he later died.

No arrests.

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Thomas Paolino, who is charged with strangling and burying his ex-girlfriend Jessica Tush, may soon be out on bail, according to a story in the Daily News. Bail is set at $1 million but Paolino's family apparently may raise the required funds.

Paolino, who has a criminal record, reportedly tricked Tush into getting into his car by promising to drive her to a friend's wake. Instead, police say, he drove her to the New Jersey Pine Barrens where he strangled her.

Victor Tush, Jessica's father, told The News he was disgusted by the prospect of Paolino making bail. "If he's the guy that did it, he should never get out, not in a million years," he told the newspaper.

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Read the full details of the NYC murder that made headlines -- "Death of a Dream" (the murder of dancer Catherine Woods and the trial of Paul Cortez) is now available everywhere by Paul LaRosa & Erin Moriarty. Reviewers called it: "compelling" and "a chilling good read."

First chapter available free.

March 29th -- 3 dead....

Michelet Duclaire, a 37-year-old black male, was shot in the chest early Friday morning and thrown from the illegal cab he was driving at the intersection of 40th Street and Avenue H in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, according to a story in the Daily News. After Duclaire tumbled from his 1995 tan Lincoln Town car, the car continued on its way until plowing into the side of a parked tractor trailer.

Duclaire was described by his roommate Shella Francois as being a quiet, religious man who did nothing more than sit around his apartment and listen to Christian music, Francois told The News.

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An unidentified 28-year-old black male was found shot twice in the torso early Saturday morning in front of 1830 Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn, police said. He was taken to Kings County Hospital and pronounced dead sometime later. No arrests.

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An unidentified 50-year-old white female was found with trauma to her neck Saturday inside 151 Richard Street in Brooklyn, police reported. Police responding to a 911 call regarding an assault called paramedics who pronounced the woman dead at the scene. Her 58-year-old husband was found to have stab wounds to his chest and arms and was taken to Lutheran Hospital where he was listed in critical condition. The medical examiner's office will determine cause of death. More information to follow as it becomes available....

March 21st -- 2 dead in Brooklyn...

An unidentified 30-year-old black male was shot once in the head yesterday near 2100 Westbury Court in Brooklyn, according to police. He was taken to Kings County Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. Also shot in the same incident was an unidentified 22-year-old black male who was shot twice in the chest and leg. He also was taken to Kings County Hospital where he is reported to be in stable condition, police said.

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An unidentified 28-year-old Latino male was found dead -- apparently beaten to death -- at Bay 23d Street and Bath Avenue in Brooklyn early yesterday morning, according to police. No arrests.

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Police continue to search for James Gonzalez, 42, who last month stabbed to death his ex-girlfriend Tina Negron in a Key Food on the lower east side. Gonzalez also stabbed a second worker in the attack and, even though he's been described as "drug-addled drifer" he's been able to elude police for three weeks now. At left is his photograph.