Slay justice bittersweet

RAPHAEL DELEON remembered the decades-old arguments between older brother Juan and the mother of Juan’s two daughters as the drama of young lovers.

Police now believe the squabbling was a prelude to premeditated murder — and Raphael Deleon is reeling after the arrest of Zunilda Rosario for the 1990 slaying of his sibling. “My brother finally got justice — but it’s bittersweet due to the person in question,” Raphael Deleon, 43, told the Daily News Saturday.

Juan Deleon was 19 when witnesses saw him with Rosario in the lobby of a Harlem building on Feb. 11, 1990, authorities said. Within minutes, he was dead on the floor, riddled with nine bullets. Rosario, who skipped Deleon’s wake and funeral, fled the scene without calling for help or ever contacting police, according to a criminal complaint.

“The relationship had its ups and downs, but I never thought it would play out to be like this,” Raphael Deleon said. “None of our family thought in general it was her, especially in the cold manner it was done.”

Cops now believe Rosario killed Juan Deleon in a jealous rage after he had a son with another woman the year before. She had allegedly threatened to shoot him on two earlier occasions, cops said.

Rosario (photo), now 48, was arrested at Kennedy Airport after returning from a trip to the Dominican Republic. Her two daughters with Deleon, now both in their 20s, were in a Manhattan courtroom for her arraignment and she was jailed without bail Friday.

“It’s not many times that a 26-year-old crime gets solved,” said Raphael DeLeon, who lives in Florida. “We’re all as shocked as everybody else.”