Bronx Landlord Sentenced In 2012 Death Of Tenant
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A long-suspected Bronx landlord is off to prison for 25 years in the violent slaying of a mother of four.
As CBS2's Sonia Rincon reported, Nasean Bonie was sentenced on a manslaughter conviction in the death of tenant Ramona Moore, who disappeared without a trace in July 2012 after a rent dispute with Bonie in the building at 663 Jefferson Pl. in the Claremont section of the Bronx.
Her body was found upstate in April 2015 -- a week before Bonie had been scheduled to go to trial without any body found.
A crew cutting down trees by Highway 208 in Orange County stumbled upon human remains and more bones were found in upstate Monroe County. Investigators traced the remains to the 35-year-old mother of four through dental records.
Bonie had been arrested on May 29, 2014. A grand jury indicted him on a murder and manslaughter charge when there was no body – something that had never happened in the Bronx before.
Bonie, 30, was convicted of first-degree manslaughter on July 25 after a four-week trial before Bronx Supreme Court Judge Nicholas Iacovetta.
"The court, from its point of view, feels in this case that the evidence is overwhelming, albeit circumstantial," Judge Iacovetta said during the hearing.
Moore said seeing her sister's killer handed the maximum sentence lifted a weight off her shoulders.
"It's just a relief -- a relief to me and all of my family," said Nicole Moore.
Witnesses testified they had Bonie threaten Ramona Moore, 35, and heard him admit after drinking and smoking marijuana that he had killed Moore and gotten rid of the body.
There was no such admission on Thursday in court.
"I am completely innocent, and have been wrongfully charged and wrongfully convicted," Bonie said.
Bonie also railed against the justice system as he spoke, 1010 WINS' Juliet Papa reported.
There was no comment from his attorney, Matthew Galluzzo, on the sentence. Galluzzo in court asked for the minimum sentence of five years, arguing that Bonie's 9-year old son needs him, and that Bonie is a military veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Moore's sister was not surprised that Bonie continued to deny committing the murder as he did during the trial.
"Everybody saw through it. Everybody saw through it and I'm glad for that," Nicole Moore said. "And like I said, and all of the witnesses, I thank all of them very much for what they did. Because I understand, everybody was scared of him."
Nicole Moore also praised investigators with the NYPD and Bronx District Attorney's office for not giving up until justice was served.
After Ramona Moore's body was found, an autopsy revealed skull fractures. Prosecutors say hiding the body in the woods of Orange County was perhaps the most heinous part of Bonie's crime -- prolonging the agony of not knowing for her loved ones.
"He robbed Ramona Moore's family of what so many homicide victims' family members hold onto and grasp as their only hope, and that is closure," said Bronx Assistant District Attorney Marisol Martinez-Alonso. "This is evidenced by the fact that it took three years to find her body."
Moore's family said her two youngest children will suffer most.
"They will never know her," Nicole Moore said. "And it hurts, it really hurts."
David Davis was the victim's husband and the father of those two young children.
"I'm here to take care of them, and hope God gives me the strength I need to survive," Davis said.
But Davis said justice was served.
Bonie is already in prison, serving a four-year sentence for assaulting his wife. The judge would not let him serve the sentences concurrently.
