District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced that a jury convicted a 43-year-old Florida man of murder in the stabbing death of a Bronx man 15 years ago, in February 1994.
Robert Symonds, of Winterpark, Florida, was found guilty on one count of murder in the 2nd degree in the death of 43-year-old Louis Muscatelli. Symonds was convicted of intentionally causing Muscatelli’s death following a six week trial before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Peter Benitez. Muscatelli is facing a maximum sentence of up to 25 years to life imprisonment and is scheduled to be sentenced on Tuesday, November 17, in State Supreme Court Part T3.
Muscatelli was stabbed 39 times and had his throat slit during a fight and struggle with Symonds. The murder occurred in Muscatelli’s home on Tenbroeck Avenue where Symonds had gone to collect a debt that Muscatelli had owed to the defendant’s father, a neighbor of the deceased. Muscatelli fled and remained at large for 12 years. He was identified as a suspect and arrested in 2006. Investigators went to Florida and obtained samples of Muscatelli’s DNA.
