November 20, 2006

Verdict in Sands Point Murder

Sanchez convicted of killing girlfriend after years of abuse

MINEOLA, NY - Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced today that Edgar Sanchez, 35, of Mastic Beach, has been found guilty of Murder in the Second Degree by a Nassau County jury in connection with the October 2005 murder of his girlfriend, Elizabeth Parisi, 24, also of Mastic Beach. The defendant was also convicted of Tampering with Physical Evidence.

The trial was in front of the Honorable George R. Peck in Nassau County Court. After sitting through more than two weeks of testimony, the jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching their unanimous verdict.

Ms. Parisi’s body was found in a heavily wooded area in Sands Point during the early morning hours of October 15. Days later, after an extensive effort to identify the body, Nassau County police detectives identified the woman and determined her cause of death to be blunt force trauma.

Edgar Sanchez, the victim’s live-in boyfriend, was arrested by U.S. Marshals October 21 in Geneva, Ohio, on an outstanding warrant issued by Suffolk County stemming from an unrelated DWI charge. The following day, police in Ohio recovered the victim’s car in Highland Hills, a suburb of Cleveland.

Inside the car, police would later find Ms. Parisi’s blood, mixed with Mr. Sanchez’s DNA, indicating the defendant attempted to clean the blood-stained seats of the 1995 Oldsmobile Cutlass. In addition to the blood evidence and the testimony regarding the defendant’s use of the victim’s car, jurors heard testimony about Mr. Sanchez’s history of abusing the victim.

Mr. Sanchez faces a maximum of 25-years-to-life at his January 3 sentencing.

Handling the case for the District Attorney’s office are Assistant District Attorneys Madeline Singas and Robert Hayden. ADA Singas is the bureau chief of the office’s Special Victims Bureau.; ADA Hayden is a prosecutor in the office’s Major Offense Bureau. Mr. Sanchez is being represented by Brian Carmody, Esq., of Westbury.