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Officers investigate the East New York scene where a woman\u2019s leg was found in a trash bag during a broader investigation into the killing of 68-year-old Susan Leyden.File photo Lloyd Mitchell\n<\/p>\nAn 87-year-old parolee from Brooklyn has been convicted in the killing and dismemberment of a woman whose body parts were discovered in plastic bags near her East New York apartment, prosecutors said last week.<\/p>\n
After roughly an hour of deliberations, a Brooklyn Supreme Court jury found defendant Harvey Marcelin guilty of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and concealment of a human corpse.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the victim, 68-year-old Susan Leyden, was last seen alive entering Marcelin\u2019s apartment on Pennsylvania Avenue in East New York on Feb. 27, 2022. Surveillance video presented at trial showed Leyden entering the apartment building, but she was never seen leaving.<\/p>\n
Additional surveillance footage captured Marcelin several days later rolling a wheeled shopping cart carrying a black plastic bag, according to evidence presented in court. In the early morning hours of March 3, 2022, police discovered Leyden\u2019s torso inside the bag on a Brooklyn street.<\/p>\n
Authorities later searched Marcelin\u2019s apartment, where investigators recovered additional body parts, including the victim\u2019s head and limbs. Detectives also found blood, cleaning supplies, a hammer and packaging from an electric saw, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
On March 7, 2022, investigators recovered one of Leyden\u2019s legs near a garbage can about three blocks from the apartment. Surveillance footage also showed Marcelin purchasing a saw and cleaning supplies at a Manhattan Home Depot around the time Leyden disappeared, according to prosecutors.<\/p>\n
The city Medical Examiner determined Leyden died from blunt force trauma to the head and other injuries.
\nOfficers investigate the East New York scene where a woman\u2019s leg was found in a trash bag during a broader investigation into the killing of 68-year-old Susan Leyden.File photo Lloyd Mitchell\n<\/p>\n
Investigators said Marcelin and Leyden, from Clinton Hill, previously lived in the same Bronx shelter in 2019, though prosecutors said the nature of their relationship remains unclear.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the first-degree murder charge was based in part on Marcelin\u2019s prior conviction for first-degree murder in Manhattan in 1963.\n<\/p>\n
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said the conviction ensures Marcelin \u201cwill never walk free again\u201d after what he described as a \u201ccruel and reprehensible\u201d killing.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cThis conviction holds the defendant accountable for the cruel and reprehensible murder of Susan Leyden. Following the senseless murder, the defendant desecrated the victim\u2019s remains in a manner that truly shocks the conscience,\u201d Gonzalez said in a statement. \u201cI hope Ms. Leyden\u2019s family finds a measure of solace in this guilty verdict, which ensures this defendant will never walk free again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marcelin has a long criminal history, including a 1963 murder conviction for shooting her then-girlfriend and a later 1986 conviction for first-degree manslaughter in a separate killing in which a woman\u2019s body was dumped in Central Park; she was released on lifetime parole in 2019 before the present case.<\/p>\n