FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Bedford-Stuyvesant Man Sentenced to 20 Years in Prison for Stabbing Death of His Pregnant Girlfriend
Victim Stabbed 22 Times, Left Under Blanket in Williamsburg
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 34-year-old Bedford-Stuyvesant man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for stabbing his 35-year-old girlfriend to death. The victim, who was a mother of two, was approximately 12 weeks pregnant with the defendant’s child when she was killed.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant brutally stabbed a pregnant woman, robbing her two children of their mother. He has now been held accountable for his actions and will spend many years in prison.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Alex Jeffrey, 34, of Bedford-Stuyvesant. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice William Harrington to 20 years in prison and five years’ post-release supervision. The defendant pleaded guilty in July to first-degree manslaughter.
According to the investigation, the defendant and the victim, a mother of two, had a three-year relationship. They had no children together and did not live together. However, at the time the victim was killed, she was pregnant with the defendant’s child and the defendant was married to another woman.
The District Attorney said that, according to the evidence, on October 28, 2013, at approximately 7 p.m., the defendant stabbed 35-year-old Merceda Young 22 times about the body while she was seated in his jeep near Kent and Division Avenues in Williamsburg. The defendant then drove the jeep onto Division Avenue in Williamsburg, where he removed the victim’s body from his vehicle and placed the body at the end of a dead-end street near the East River. According to the investigation, the defendant then threw the knife, his jacket and some of the victim’s belongings into the water. The victim’s body was discovered the following day by a passerby.
During the investigation, police interviewed the victim’s 14-year-old son, who told them about the victim’s boyfriend and described his jeep. Detectives arrested the defendant on October 30, 2013 near his residence in Bedford Stuyvesant.
Following his arrest, the defendant admitted to stabbing the victim. He admitted to removing the victim from his jeep and placing a blanket over her dead body. The defendant further stated that he went to work the next morning and got his jeep detailed at a car wash.
According to the investigation, bloody paper towels and traces of the victim’s blood were found in the defendant’s jeep. One of the defendant’s coworkers also found a bag wrapped in duct tape with the victim’s cell phone, wallet and credit cards.
The defendant’s cellphone location data placed him within a block or two of the location of where the victim’s body was found. Google searches on defendant’s phone also showed that prior to his arrest, he searched for ways to remove blood stains.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Sabeeha Madni, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michelle Kaminsky, Bureau Chief.
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