By Kevin Deutsch
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A Bronx man was sentenced to 20 years in prison this week for the 1999 stabbing death and rape of a female neighbor, authorities said.
Curtis Batchelor, 44, pleaded guilty in February to manslaughter in the killing of Elsa Grullon, 56, who Batchelor stabbed more than twenty times in her face, neck, and chest with a knife while he raped her in May 1999, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Batchelor was arrested and convicted in January 2016 on a fare beating charge, after which his DNA sample was taken, authorities said. In March 2016, that sample was found to match DNA recovered from Grullon’s body, leading prosecutors to charge Batchelor with her killing in Feb. 2017.
“More than two decades have passed since the defendant killed his neighbor, a 56-year-old woman who lived on the floor above him,” said Bronx District Atttorney Darcel Clark. “DNA taken from another crime he committed in 2017 connected him to the 1999 crime scene. The defendant believed he had gotten away with her killing, but in the end justice prevailed.”