(New York City) A homeless man apparently used a pillowcase to suffocate a college honors student he had just met, then hung out at the young man’s apartment to watch a gory horror film before stealing electronics from the apartment and selling them, police said Tuesday.
Kevin Pravia, 19, was found Sunday night by his roommate in Manhattan’s Chelsea neighborhood. The Pace University sophomore was last seen being helped into a taxi early Saturday after a party in Manhattan.
Jeromie Cancel, 22, was arrested Tuesday on murder charges. Investigators said that while Cancel was being questioned in an unrelated case, he admitted suffocating Pravia and stealing his cell phone, laptop computer and iPod.
Police said Cancel, who smiled for television cameras as he was being led in handcuffs out of a police station, was homeless. Police didn’t know whether he had an attorney.
Cancel’s father, Jesus Soto, told WNYW-TV that his son had stolen possessions from him in June, and that he called police when Cancel showed up at his apartment Monday night.
“You don’t take someone’s life like that,” the father said. “He deserves what he gets.”
Cancel claimed that Pravia approached him in Manhattan’s Union Square park around 6 a.m. Saturday looking for drugs and that the two went to his apartment, a few blocks to the northwest, police said. After the slaying, Cancel stayed behind to watch the violent film “Saw,” then left before 11 a.m., police said.
No drugs were found at the scene, police said.
The medical examiner’s office said tests were being performed to determine the cause of Pravia’s death.
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