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

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham Fires Coach

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Fordham Fires Coach: Fordham Fires Coach By Howard Goldin BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 19- Seven days before the fifth anniversary of his hiring as the head ...

Fordham Fires Coach

Fordham Fires Coach

By Howard Goldin

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 19- Seven days before the fifth anniversary of his hiring as the head coach of the Fordham University men’s basketball team, Tom Pecora was relieved of his duties at Fordham. 

The announcement was made after a meeting between Pecora and David Roach, Fordham’s director of intercollegiate athletics and recreation. The reasons given for Pecora’s separation from the university were the team’s poor won/lost record of 44‐106 (.293) during his five seasons as coach and an a retention rate of only 50 percent of those recruited during the first four years under Pecora. Obviously, those figures were a disappointment to the university’s administration.

After beginning the 2014‐15 basketball season with only five wins in their first 20 games, The Rams closed the year with five wins in 11 contests. The improvement caused Pecora to speak very positively of the future of the Fordham Rams and his place in that future in his final press conference as Fordham coach on March 12 after Fordham’s loss to VCU in the second round of the Atlantic‐10 Championship in Brooklyn, “I think that if you looked at this team, and you didn’t think there was a bright future, you’d be crazy because of the youth and the enthusiasm and the veterans that are coming back.”

His closing words about his happiness and future at Fordham show no thought of what would happen on the following Wednesday, “I feel lucky to work at Fordham, to work in the university that’s got an academic reputation. That’s what brought me there. I thought the combination of athletics in the A‐10 and the academics could make it a special place if they were patient and they have been patient. I think they know they are going to turn the corner here and it’s going to be exciting when it happens. I’m a New York guy, man, I’m not going anywhere. I’m thrilled to still be here.”

Fordham’ press release closed with these words, “Fordham will launch a national search for a new head men’s basketball coach immediately, and will use the services of a search firm in the process.”

#Fordham #Rams #Coach #Bronxnews

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless?

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless?: Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless? (Just what was this 'Coalition for the Homeless' van doing in front of a 'rent stabilized&#...

Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless?

Goodbye Montefiore, Hello Homeless?

(Just what was this 'Coalition for the Homeless' van doing in front of a 'rent stabilized' building in Riverdale? Pictured above is the van, and you can see the Whitehall in the background. The building is managed by Goodman Management, and calls to Goodman Management were answered with, 'Not in that building’.)

Riverdale Report

By Robert Press

BRONX, NEW YORK, MARCH 19- Two weeks ago, I mentioned that a Coalition For the Homeless van was spotted in Riverdale. That same Coalition For the Homeless van was spotted in front of one of the few remaining 'Rent Stabilized' buildings in Riverdale. 

The building is managed by Goodman Management, and calls to Goodman Management were answered with not in that building. With Goodman Management managing many buildings in Riverdale and Community Board 8, my next question was are there any homeless or transition housing in any of the buildings Goodman manages? The reply here was that Mr. Goodman would have to get back to you on that.

It seems that in rebuffing the Montefiore Medical Center project, the opposition may have just opened the site up to affordable housing by Stagg Developers. Stagg has just paid $7.1 million dollars for a property on Webster Avenue for a 200-plus unit building of so called market/affordable housing. I have been told that the asking price is only $7 million for the Montefiore Riverdale/Oxford Avenue site. By the way Mr. Stagg was the first of many developers to look at that site to possibly build market/affordable housing. With new zoning changes being proposed, other bonuses to developers, and new financing to meet the deBlasio 200,000 unit affordable housing edict this site is a bargain to Mr. Stagg.

Con Edison is having their underground transformers checked, as the recent spring thaw has melted all the snow and sent the residual salt melting at their equipment. On my blog is a photo of a transformer meltdown on a recent night. The FDNY came and roped off the area until Con Edison came the next day to fix the problem.

Lastly, we say good-bye to a great man who not many knew of, Mr. Lorance Hockert. Larry as those who knew him called him was a member of Community Board 8 from 1990 through 2003. Larry was also the boards chair from 1998 through 2000, and was crucial in the 197A plan developed by Community Board 8. One piece of little known information was that Lorance Hockert was going to be the next councilman after June Eisland was to be term limited out of office. However for reasons known to only a few people Larry never did commit to that, and retired from Community Board 8 the following term. Lorance 'Larry' Hockert will be missed by all.

If you have any comments about this column or would like to have an event listed or covered in this column or on my blog you can e-mail us at 100percentbronxnews@gmail.com or call 718-644-4199 Mr. Robert Press.  

#Riverdale #Montefiore #Homeless #Bronxnews

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): Bloody Breakup

Bronx News (Bxnews.net): 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 s...

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