A Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 27 years to life in jail for fatally strangling and burying the body of a building superintendent that replaced him after he had been fired, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced.
Bushwick resident Keith Floyd, 44, received his sentence this week after being convicted of second-degree murder, first-degree hindering prosecution and concealment of a human corpse back on Feb. 21, 2023.
According to Gonzalez, the incident occurred back on Sept. 27, 2017. Prior to this day, in April of the same year, Floyd had been fired from his superintendent job at a Bushwick building management company after being arrested for gun possession.
Hired to replace Floyd was 41-year-old Daniel Rivera, who was also in line to inherit Floyd’s company-owned apartment after Floyd was informed that he would be evicted on Sept. 29, 2017.
According to the investigation, in the days leading up to his eviction, Floyd had begun communicating with Rivera via phone calls and text messages — including texting the victim for seven hours during the day that the murder took place.
On the day of the incident, Floyd reportedly left his apartment at around 3:05 p.m. and walked over to 146 Grove Street, which was one of the properties that Rivera cleaned and maintained. 40 minutes later, Floyd would go on to murder Rivera by strangling him, according to evidence.
Later in the same evening, Floyd and his sister, Adrianna, reportedly returned to the property and wrapped Rivera’s body in trash bags. The District Attorney says that the duo then proceeded to load the body into a shopping cart and brought it back to Floyd’s apartment.
According to evidence, during the early morning of Sept. 30, 2017, Floyd had used Rivera’s cell phone to text the victim’s boss, stating that Rivera was quitting because of a new job. Later that same morning, Floyd was discovered via surveillance cameras wheeling the body to his grandma’s home.
On Oct. 5, 2017, the NYPD received an anonymous tip that there was a dead body buried in the backyard of Floyd’s grandmother’s residence. The next day, detectives discovered the body in a shallow, unmarked grave.
Following an autopsy, the New York City Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death to be homicidal asphyxia, according to Gonzalez.
“The senselessness of this cold-blooded murder shocks the conscience, and my heart continues to be with Daniel Rivera’s loved ones,” said Gonzalez. “Today’s lengthy prison sentence makes our community safer and ensures this defendant will pay a heavy price for this callous and horrific crime.”
