It took less than an hour this week for a jury to convict Harvey Marcelin of murder \u2014 in 2022, he killed a woman and dismembered her body.<\/p>\n
Investigators found her torso in a shopping cart, her head and limbs in his apartment and one of her legs near a garbage can blocks away.<\/p>\n
The murder and dismemberment of Susan Leyden, 68, horrified prosecutors, but even more shocking was the criminal history of Mr. Marcelin, 87.<\/p>\n
This marked the third time in 63 years that Mr. Marcelin was convicted of killing a woman. In 1963, he killed his girlfriend. In 1984, he killed the woman he was living with.<\/p>\n
It was unclear how Ms. Leyden and Mr. Marcelin knew one another, though investigators found that they had lived in the same shelter in the Bronx about seven years ago.<\/p>\n
Eric Gonzalez, the Brooklyn district attorney, called the killing of Ms. Leyden \u201ccruel and reprehensible.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFollowing the senseless murder, the defendant desecrated the victim\u2019s remains in a manner that truly shocks the conscience,\u201d he said in a statement on Friday, following the trial in State Supreme Court.<\/p>\n
Ms. Leyden was \u201cgetting her life back on track\u201d when she was killed, according to a prosecutor. Brooklyn Defender Services, which represented Mr. Marcelin, declined to comment on Friday.<\/p>\n
Mr. Marcelin, who was listed as male in earlier court records, identified as a woman at the time of his 2022 arrest. But at the start of his trial last month, Mr. Marcelin told the court that he identifies as a man.<\/p>\n
The 2022 case against Mr. Marcelin broke into the news shortly after a man came across a shopping cart while on his way home to Brooklyn from a night out. The cart had been sitting at Atlantic and Pennsylvania Avenues for hours, the man recalled, so he decided to take it with him.<\/p>\n
He pulled his electric bicycle onto the sidewalk and peeked into the bag.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found a body,\u201d the man, Ramon Lopez, told jurors during his testimony.<\/p>\n
A video played in court showed him riding his e-bike down the street in jeans, a brown jacket and a black backpack. After stopping and opening the bag, Mr. Lopez is seen jumping back. He gets off his bike, moves it across the sidewalk and pulls out his phone. He slowly walks back to the bag, his phone\u2019s flashlight on, and appears to check again.<\/p>\n
He said he called 911 immediately.<\/p>\n
In the bag, according to prosecutors, were some of Ms. Leyden\u2019s remains. Surveillance footage showed Mr. Marcelin pushing the shopping cart the day before it was discovered, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
Over the following days, investigators ended up at Mr. Marcelin\u2019s apartment. There, investigators found the victim\u2019s head and limbs, as well cleaning supplies, a hammer and the box from an electric saw. They also recovered more bags containing Ms. Leyden\u2019s remains blocks from the building.<\/p>\n
Surveillance footage taken on Feb. 27, 2022, showed Ms. Leyden entering Mr. Marcelin\u2019s apartment building on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York. Ms. Leyden was never seen leaving the apartment, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
A lawyer for Mr. Marcelin, Alison Stocking, told the jury during the opening statements that prosecutors could not prove that it was her client who killed Ms. Leyden. The prosecution\u2019s case \u201cwill not resolve the question of how Susan Leyden died and when,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Stocking said that a woman who was a witness for the prosecution could have been the one who killed Ms. Leyden.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe question of who was in contact with Susan Leyden is completely separate from who killed her,\u201d Ms. Stocking said.<\/p>\n