{"id":262090,"date":"2026-06-10T17:07:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/262090\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T17:07:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T17:07:49","slug":"88-year-old-brooklyn-man-convicted-of-murder-while-on-parole-sentenced-to-life-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/262090\/","title":{"rendered":"88-year-old Brooklyn man, convicted of murder while on parole, sentenced to life in prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

An 88-year-old former Brooklyn resident convicted of murdering and dismembering a woman<\/a> in East New York after being paroled for two other killings was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.<\/p>\n

A jury convicted Harvey Marcelin last month of first-degree murder, evidence tampering and concealing a human corpse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cold fact is, every time you were released, you killed someone else, which leads this court to believe that regardless of your age, if you were ever paroled again, I have no doubt that you would kill again,\u201d Justice Danny Chun said before announcing his sentence.<\/p>\n

Marcelin\u2019s defense attorney declined to comment after the sentencing. Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said \u201cthe brutality of this shocking crime is almost beyond words.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe must be locked away, and today\u2019s sentence ensures that he will never be able to hurt anyone else again,\u201d Gonzalez said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said 68-year-old Susan Leyden went into Marcelin\u2019s apartment on Feb. 27, 2022 and never came out alive. Law enforcement later found her head and some limbs in the apartment, while one of her legs was discovered in a garbage can, according to the Brooklyn district attorney\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

Marcelin and Leyden lived in the same Bronx shelter in 2019 before Marcelin moved to East New York, Brooklyn, but the nature of their relationship was unclear.<\/p>\n

Marcelin was released on parole in 1984 after serving about two decades for fatally shooting a woman, according to parole records obtained by Gothamist. At the time, a parole commissioner characterized his behavior as \u201cseriously assaultive to females\u201d and said the behavior was part of a pattern.<\/p>\n

During the 1984 parole hearing, Marcelin said he had lost interest in romantic relationships and would focus on taking care of his elderly mother if released.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can guarantee you that would you give me a chance, this will never happen again,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I would like to prove that I can do something right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after his release, Marcelin stabbed a woman to death, according to parole records. In that case, he was observed carrying a garbage bag that was dripping with blood from his apartment, which contained the body of a woman he had been living with. Marcelin told the parole board in 2019 that the woman hadn\u2019t been paying rent, and he \u201cwent berserk\u201d during an argument with her. He also said he was on cocaine at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m very sorry that it happened,\u201d Marcelin said, according to a transcript of the parole hearing. \u201cBut I just lost it for a minute.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcelin said his whole family had died while he was incarcerated and that he had been working with organizations like the Fortune Society to help him prepare for life outside of prison. If released, he said, he planned to volunteer at soup kitchens and \u201cinstruct people not to go down the route that I\u2019ve gone.\u201d He also said he had stopped using drugs.<\/p>\n

When a commissioner pointed out his \u201clengthy\u201d criminal history and \u201cvery, very aggressive\u201d sexual activity in the past, Marcelin said he was \u201cfully ashamed of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m no longer that person,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Marcelin then assured the parole commissioners that he was \u201cfully transformed\u201d and \u201crespectful of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI give you my word, I will never re-offend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Less than three years later, he killed Leyden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An 88-year-old former Brooklyn resident convicted of murdering and dismembering a woman in East New York after being…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-262090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}