Harvey Marcelin, the 83-year-old ex-con accused of killing and dismembering her gal pal, pleaded not responsible at her arraignment on Wednesday.
Marcelin’s lawyer Andrew Friedman entered the plea on his shopper’s behalf through the temporary listening to in Brooklyn Supreme Court.
“My client maintains her innocence,” Friedman informed Justice Danny Chun.
Marcelin, a transgender girl and two-time convicted killer, appeared in orange jail garb and a long-sleeved jacket, her arms cuffed behind her again. She didn’t communicate through the proceedings.
She is dealing with prices of first- and second-degree homicide, tampering with bodily proof and concealment of a human corpse within the grotesque slaying of 68-year-old Susan Leyden.
Leyden’s dismembered physique components have been present in a number of places round Brooklyn earlier this month.
Surveillance footage confirmed Leyden, who lived in an LGBTQ senior middle in Fort Greene, coming into Marcelin’s East New York residence on Feb. 27.
She was by no means seen alive once more.
Prosecutors allege that Marcelin discarded a black buying bag containing Leyden’s torso later that week. She was additionally captured on video lugging round a severed leg wrapped in plastic in her motorized wheelchair, police stated.
The sufferer’s head and different limbs have been found in Marcelin’s residence, together with blood, cleansing provides, a hammer and the field for an electrical noticed, prosecutors stated.
Police discovered one in every of Leyden’s legs close to a rubbish can about three blocks from Marcelin’s house on March 7.
Leyden died of “homicidal violence” together with blunt drive trauma to the pinnacle, the New York City Medical Examiner dominated.
She met Marcelin when the 2 lived in the identical Bronx shelter in 2019, however the actual nature of their relationship is unclear.
Marcelin has spent greater than 50 years in state jail for 2 previous killings.
She shot and killed her live-in girlfriend, Jacqueline Bonds, contained in the couple’s Manhattan residence in April 1963, and fatally stabbed one other live-in girlfriend in 1985 — stuffing her physique right into a bag dumped close to Central Park.
The accused serial killer faces life in jail with out the potential for parole if she is convicted of Leyden’s homicide.
“This shocking and horrific murder ended the life and desecrated the remains of a beloved member of the Brooklyn community, and her family and many friends continue to be in my prayers,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez stated in an announcement.
“Few crimes in my long career as a prosecutor rise to this level of extreme depravity, and we will vigorously pursue justice on Ms. Leyden’s behalf.”
