Former Queens barber Martin Motta sentenced in grisly 1976 dismemberment murder of World War I veteran George Seitz
NEW YORK -- Justice was served, nearly 50 years later.
A 75-year-old Queens man, who was once a barber, was sentenced Monday for the murder of his client back in 1976.
The victim's dismembered remains were discovered just a few years ago.
Last month, he took a deal and pled guilty.
CBS2 had the only TV camera in the courtroom for sentencing. Reporter Alice Gainer has new details on the crime.
"Frankly, you're like Queens' own Jeffrey Dahmer lite," Judge Kenneth C. Holder said.
The disgusted judge sentenced an emotionless Martin Motta to 20 years behind bars for the murder of 81-year-old George Seitz.
"I hope they're hard, terrible years," the judge said.
FLASHBACK: Queens man Martin Motta arrested in connection to 1976 murder of World War I veteran George Seitz
Motta, now 75, was 29 back in 1976 when Seitz, a World War I veteran, was reported missing.
Seitz's niece gave a victim impact statement.
"My mother died never knowing what had happened to her brother," Gertrude Jones said.
Prosecutors say Seitz left his home in Jamaica to go to Motta's barbershop on 161st Street two days before his 82nd birthday.
"Instead of getting a haircut, he got robbed, killed, dismembered, and buried in a backyard where nobody would find him for 45 years," Assistant District Attorney Karen Ross said.
Motta stabbed Seitz in the head and took upwards of $8,000 from him. Seitz was known to carry large sums of cash.
"He threw the head in the garbage and scattered the arms and legs across Queens," Ross said.
For decades, Motta continued about his life, got married and had kids. Then in 2019, Seitz's partial remains were discovered buried under concrete in the backyard of a home in Richmond Hill.
A tipster had called detectives claiming that when she was 11 she witnessed, among other things, her stepfather burying black garbage bags in the backyard.
"She saw him feeding what she believed were body parts to the dog," Ross said.
Prosecutors said he kept that family quiet with threats.
"He would say, 'Do you want to end up like the guy in the backyard?' and run his finger across the neck," Ross said.
Investigators used investigative genetic genealogy to identify the remains and then arrested Motta at a home in Queens.
Motta gave no apology in court, but he admitted to all of it.
"He is remorseful," said Russel Rothberg, Motta's attorney.
Motta's son was visibly upset in court and later said his father never told him about any of this.
"They got their justice. I'm OK with it, too, you know," Daniel Motta said.
As for Seitz, he was finally given a proper military burial.
"Today, justice is served, a few days before Veterans Day," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
"My hope is each day you spend in prison, you will think of your evil actions, the suffering my uncle must have endured," Jones said.
This cold case is now closed, but the loss remains.
