(Washington Insider Magazine) Lashawn Mackey, who killed María Hernández in her Manhattan apartment, spent nearly 20 years in prison for stabbing a man 15 times, leaving the victim’s intestines outside his body on a Brooklyn street.
The Man Accused of Murdering
The man accused of murdering an elderly woman in her Upper West Side, Manhattan apartment was previously sentenced to 20 years in prison for disemboweling a man, prosecutors said Sunday.
Former inmate Lashawn Mackey, 47, was arrested without bail on charges of murder, attempted murder and robbery following the death of 74-year-old María Hernández, who was found bound and gagged face down under a pile of clothes inside his house on Wednesday night.
“This is a particularly brutal homicide,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Maxine Rosenthal said at Mackey’s arraignment.
“She had extensive injuries, including bruises and abrasions to her face, arms, back, and lacerations to her vaginal and rectal areas,” the district attorney said.
“This was clearly a premeditated crime in which the defendant went to the basement prior to the assault to break into the superintendent’s office and dismantle the security surveillance systems located there,” Judge Felicia Menin added.
Long Criminal Record of Mackey
Mackey is a criminal with a long criminal record under his belt. He was sentenced to 23 years in jail in 2000 for first-degree assault and served almost 20 years before being released in 2019.
Prosecutor Ronsenthal stated in court that the victim in that particular case was stabbed 15 times and was left lying in the middle of a Brooklyn street with “her intestines hanging out of her body.”
State court records show the suspect was incarcerated in October 2021 and released again about a month later. It is not clear why he was put behind bars.
Mackey was later arrested on Aug. 16, 2022, and charged with grand theft, robbery and petty theft in Brooklyn, according to online court records.
On December 21, he pleaded guilty and was due to return a month later to receive his sentence, the New York Post reported.
The victim’s body was found by her sister, Maria Terrero, who told officers she discovered her sister’s badly wounded body when she went to see her at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said.
In addition, authorities said that Hernández’s apartment was ransacked. The autopsy carried out by the forensic doctor determined that the old woman died of suffocation.
Mackey was arrested on Saturday for the crime, who later pleaded not guilty to reporters outside the 20th Precinct station.
“Get DNA results at the crime scene!” Mackey yelled. “Ask him!”
Defense attorney Jessica Horani also maintained the innocence of her client Sunday night.
“Mr. Mackey is shocked that he is being charged in this case,” Horani said. “He Appears before you radically denying the accusations against him.”
“I don’t think people have meaningful evidence in this case,” he added.
This article is authored by Marlyn Montilla.