Highbridge News: Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza

Highbridge News: Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza: Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza Convicted of Poisoning Son, Drowning in Tub BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 20-    He laced his kids’ pi...

Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza

Psycho Dad Fed Kids Poisoned Pizza

Convicted of Poisoning Son, Drowning in Tub

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 20-  He laced his kids’ pizza with rat poison. For that, Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson announced that 49-year-old Leonardo Espinal will spend 20-to-life in prison.

Following a plea of guilty last month to murder in the second degree (Class A-1 Felony) and attempted murder in the second degree (Class B Felony), Espinal was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice Troy Webber to 20 years-to-life for the murder of his 5-year-old son Steward, and, concurrently, 15 years in prison plus another five years post-release supervision for the injury to his daughter Mia, who was 7-years-old at the time.

In November 2012, Espinal was having issues with his ex-wife, Rosaura Abreu, and she had kicked him out of the family apartment. When Espinal discovered Abreu was seeing another man, he carried out a callous revenge plan to poison their two children. Espinal penned a suicide note, and fed the poisoned pizza to the children, eating some as well. The little girl threw up from ingesting the rat poison; Steward soiled himself, and the father locked himself and the boy in the bathroom. Refusing to come out, Espinal's stepmother called 911 and police broke down the door to find the father dazed, but alive. The little boy was in the tub, dead from the combination of poison and being submerged in water.  

The children’s mother, Rosaura Abreu, submitted a victim impact statement to the Court: “Mi querido angelito…I will never forget the last time I saw my little son…he was radiant, happy, content, and followed me all around the house. When it was time for me to leave, he followed me to the door and I knelt down to talk with him. It’s as if my heart knew that it would be the last time I would see him alive…

Noting that the tragedy impelled mother and daughter to move, “Mia suffered anxiety attacks every time I would mention going back to that apartment where she lived with her little brother.  She never wanted to sleep in the same bed where she slept with her Steward, protecting him from monsters.

“Mia will have to live for the rest of her life with the horrific memory that her own father caused in attempting to kill her.  Although therapy helped the both of us, Mia and I suffer every day the absence of our boy in our daily lives. Mia suffers…when she goes to parties, when she goes to bed, when she plays with other children, when she sees photos of him, when she sees another boy the same age as him, when she sees me sad because she knows I am thinking of him.

“All we can do is take it day by day.”

#Pizza #Rat Poison #Dad #NYPD #BronxDA

Highbridge News: Bloody Breakup

Highbridge News: Bloody Breakup: Bloody Breakup Man convicted of slaughtering girlfriend and her mother BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 18- It was one of the more grues...

Bloody Breakup

Bloody Breakup

Man convicted of slaughtering girlfriend and her mother

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 18- It was one of the more gruesome crime scenes police and the District Attorney’s office has ever dealt with – evidencing a rage borne out of a broken relationship that would leave a mother and daughter dead at the hands of the daughter’s ex-boyfriend.

Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson announces that, following a month-long trial and less than two hours of deliberation, a jury has found 24-year-old Andrew Scott guilty of the following charges in the October 1, 2013 deaths of 65-year-old Ida Randolph and her daughter, 23-year-old Jana Randolph: murder in the second degree (4 counts, Class A Felony) (2 counts Intentional Murder, 2 counts Felony Murder) robbery in the 1^st Degree (2 counts, Class B Felony).

Scott bludgeoned the older woman so hard with her own baseball bat, that he crushed her skull nearly a half-dozen times, broke her arm clear through, and inflicted other injuries too horrific to describe. And, he took a sizable kitchen knife to his ex-girlfriend, stabbing her more than a dozen times, some of the cuts three-inches deep. He then bludgeoned her, the final act that caused her death.

Scott had been dating Jana Randolph for seven years and had moved into the women’s apartment at 2794 Valentine Avenue in the Bedford Park section of the Bronx a year before the killings.  But he had behaved badly – in the weeks before the incident, he trashed the apartment and stole Jana’s bank card – leading the clerical worker at Montefiore to break up with him. Jana’s  mother, a retired social services worker, kicked him out of the apartment.

Scott did not take it well.

On the night of October 1^st, he got together two others and hatched a plot to rob the mother and daughter, get their bank cards and PIN numbers, and steal their money, all revenge for having been tossed aside. Along for the plan was 23-year-old 

Brittney Austin, who was coming off a heroin addiction, and, allegedly, another friend.  

The plan was for Austin and Scott to rob the women. The Randolph women fought back, but in the end they were subdued by Scott, who tied up Ida Randolph with duct tape; Austin bound Jana. A quarter-of-an-hour later, Austin left the apartment with the cards and cash. It is alleged that 26-year-old Joshua Lopez then took the cards and tried, but failed, to extract money from several ATM machines.

Scott remained in the apartment for an hour-and-a-half, during which time he not only committed the atrocities but tried to clean up the battle scene. Blood splatter was so great from the attacks it hit the ceiling. During the savage murders he also somehow injured himself, cutting his hand with the very knife he used to kill.

When he is sentenced on April 9, 2015 before Justice Margaret Clancy, Scott faces 25 years-to-life on each of the murder and another 25 years on the robbery, all to run consecutive to one another.

Austin pled guilty to murder in the 2^nd degree and robbery in the 1^st degree in January of this year and will be sentenced at a future date.  

Joshua Lopez, pled not guilty to four counts of murder in the 2^nd degree and two counts of robbery in the 1^st degree. His next court appearance has been adjourned until March 24^th in front of Justice Clancy, Part 79, Bronx Supreme Court. Should Lopez be convicted, he also faces 50 years to life.

The cases against Scott and Austin were prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Rachel Kalman and Jennifer Cruz of Trial Bureau 30/40.

#NYPD #BronxDA #Murder 

Highbridge News: Manhattan Out!

Highbridge News: Manhattan Out!: Manhattan Out! Jaspers End Season with a 74‐64 Loss to Hampton  By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 18-  The technical start ...

Manhattan Out!

Manhattan Out!

Jaspers End Season with a 74‐64 Loss to Hampton 

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 18- The technical start of the NCAA National Tournament is the play of the First Four two days before the first round. The winner of each of Tuesday’s games will see action in the first round of the 64 teams that begin play on Thursday. The Manhattan Jaspers (19‐14) qualified for the tourney by defeating the favored Iona Gaels in the final of the MAAC Tournament. The Jaspers faced the Hampton Pirates (17‐17) of Virginia at the University of Dayton Arena. Despite finishing the regular season with a record under .500, the Pirates qualified by winning the MEAC Tournament.

The Pirates began by scoring the first seven points in less than three minutes. A dunk by Charles Wilson‐Fisher at 6:33 gave Hampton its first double digit lead. The advantage rose to a first half‐high 12 points, 35‐23, at 3:49. The lead was shaved by the Jaspers to seven at the end of the half, 38‐31.

In the second half, the Jaspers lowered the deficit to as low as a single point, but a comeback by the Pirates raised their lead to double figures again, 62‐52, at 5:43. Manhattan reached within single figures again, but never held the lead during the game. The Pirates were victors by a score of 74‐64.

Hampton now has to travel to Lexington, Kentucky to play the overall #1 seed Kentucky, who are undefeated this season. Manhattan’s season is over. 

The Jaspers achieved every team’s goal to be in the NCAA Tournament in March, but their dream ended early.

#ManhattanCollege #Jaspers #MarchMadness #Bronxnews

Highbridge News: Soccer Kicks Off with a Bang in the Bronx

Highbridge News: Soccer Kicks Off with a Bang in the Bronx: Soccer Kicks Off with a Bang in the Bronx Photos by Gary Quintal By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 16- The long await...