An 87-year-old parolee and Brooklyn resident on Wednesday was sentenced to prison without the possibility of parole for killing a Brooklyn woman whose body parts were discovered inside and in the vicinity of the defendant’s East New York apartment.
Harvey Marcelin, 87, of East New York, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole following a conviction last month of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and concealment of a human corpse after a jury trial, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Surveillance footage taken on Feb. 27, 2022, showed the victim, 68-year-old Susan Leyden, entering the defendant’s apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York. She was never seen leaving the apartment alive, prosecutors said.
Additional surveillance footage showed the defendant rolling a wheeled shopping bag containing a black plastic bag on March 2. The victim’s torso was discovered in that bag in the early morning hours of March 3.
In a subsequent search of Marcelin's apartment, police discovered the victim’s head and limbs, as well as blood, cleaning supplies, a hammer, and the box from an electric saw. On March 7, one of the victim’s legs was found near a garbage can about three blocks away. In addition, surveillance video showed the defendant purchasing a saw and cleaning supplies in a Manhattan Home Depot around the time of the victim’s disappearance, Gonzalez said.
The Medical Examiner determined that Leyden, who resided in Clinton Hill, suffered blunt force trauma to the head and other physical injuries to her body. The investigation revealed that the defendant and the victim lived in the same shelter in the Bronx in 2019, but the nature of their relationship is unclear, according to prosecutors.
“The brutality of this shocking crime is almost beyond words," Gonzalez said in a statement. "This defendant committed a horrific murder that took Susan Leyden’s life and inflicted unimaginable pain on her family and loved ones."
