Man Charged In Slaying Of Woman, 85, In Mount Vernon
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork/AP) -- A Westchester County man has been charged with beating an 85-year-old woman to death while stealing copper pipes and brass objects from her home in Mount Vernon this past winter.
Lloyd "Blue" Lewis, 32, was arraigned Wednesday on a 17-count indictment charging him with murder, burglary, petty larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and criminal possession of a controlled substance, according to the office of Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore.
A relative filed a missing person report. Detectives found her body Feb. 12 under a large pile of clothes and a piece of plywood at the bottom of her basement stairs in her home on South Sixth Avenue.
Investigators believe Gruber had been dead more than a day before police found her body.
Authorities said a blood-stained wooden 2-by-4 was found nearby.
"She may have walked in on a burglary, or she may have been at home and heard a noise in her basement and responded to that sound," Mount Vernon Police Commissioner Terrance Raynor said in February.
A message requesting comment from Lewis' attorney was not immediately returned.
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