Defendant Pleaded Guilty to First-Degree Manslaughter
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree Manslaughter in the 1999 death of his neighbor.
District Attorney Clark said, “More than two decades have passed since the defendant killed his neighbor, a 56-year-old woman who lived on the floor above him. DNA taken from another crime he committed in 2017 connected him to the 1999 crime scene. The defendant believed he had gotten away with her killing, but in the end justice prevailed.”
District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Curtis Batchelor, 44, last of 825 Gerard Avenue, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision by Bronx Supreme Court Justice James McCarty. The defendant pleaded guilty to first-degree Manslaughter on February 27, 2020.
According to the investigation, on or about and between May 25, 1999 and May 27, 1999, at 825 Gerard Avenue, the defendant stabbed Elsa Grullon more than twenty times in the face, neck and chest with a knife while he raped her. Grullon was discovered dead on May 27, 1999 by a family member.
Batchelor was arrested and convicted in January 2016 for a minor crime and his DNA was taken. In March 2016, the DNA was found to match the DNA recovered from the Grullon’s body. Batchelor was arrested on February 27, 2017 for the death of Grullon.
As part of the plea deal the Rape charge was dismissed.
District Attorney Clark thanked NYPD Detective Brian Hennessy and NYPD Detective Dennis Kelly (retired), both of the 44th Precinct, and NYPD Detective Francis Orlando of the Bronx Homicide Squad for their assistance in the investigation
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