FLORIDA MAN FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER IN THE STABBING DEATH OF A BRONX MAN 15 YEARS AGO IN FEBRUARY 1994 - DEFENDANT WAS ARRESTED IN 2006 AFTER DNA EVIDENCE LINKED HIM TO THE CRIME SCENE
Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a jury last night convicted a 43-year-old Florida man of murder in the stabbing death of a Bronx man 15 years ago, in February 1994.
Robert Symonds, of Winterpark, Florida, was found guilty on one count of Murder in the 2nd degree in the death of 43-year-old Louis Muscatelli. Symonds was convicted of intentionally causing Muscatelli’s death following a six week trial before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Peter Benitez. Muscatelli is facing a maximum sentence of up to 25 years to life imprisonment and is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 in State Supreme Court Part T3.
Muscatelli was stabbed 39 times and had his throat slit during a fight and struggle with Symonds. The murder occurred in Muscatelli’s home on Tenbroeck Avenue where Symonds had gone to collect a debt that Muscatelli had owed to the defendant’s father, a neighbor of the deceased. Muscatelli fled and remained at large for 12 years. He was identified as a suspect and arrested in 2006 as a result of hard work by NYPD detectives from the cold case unit aided by advances in DNA technology. Investigators went to Florida and obtained samples of Muscatelli’s DNA which linked him to the crime scene.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Christine Scaccia, Director of Gang Prosecutions of the Gangs /Major Case Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Patrick Butler.
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