ROTTING CORPSE IN APT.
Body found in home of ex-con held in girlfriend assault rap
An ex-con was arrested for brutally assaulting a girlfriend the day before the decomposing body of another woman was found stuffed in the trash inside his Bronx apartment, cops said Tuesday.
Deshawn Owens, 30, is facing assault, strangulation, unlawful imprisonment and other charges for allegedly kidnapping and attacking a 28-year-old girlfriend, cops said.
As of Tuesday he wasn’t facing any charges regarding the dead woman, whose body was so badly decomposed a cause of death had yet to be established, a police source said.
Owens, who police sources say has a tattoo of the Superman logo on his chest, was released from prison 15 months ago after serving four years for robbery and burglary, court records show.
He’d been subleasing the apartment since he was put on parole, which is expected to end in 2026.
Bronx prosecutors said that between Dec. 1 and Jan. 19, both at Owens’ apartment on E. 179th St. apartment near Mapes Ave. in East Tremont and the victim’s home on E. 149th St., he tied his girlfriend up with cable wires and refused to let her leave.
As he kept the woman captive he beat her, strangled her and threatened her with a knife and a broomstick.
The woman suffered two black eyes, several broken ribs, a punctured pancreas and internal bleeding during the assault. She also had several bones in her hand broken, cops said.
After someone called 911 to report a foul odor coming from the home, responding officers got into the fifth-floor apartment through a fire escape and found the body inside a trash can wrapped in a plush fabric about 2 p.m. Saturday, cops said.
Owens was already in police custody, facing a battery of assault charges against his girlfriend, which included criminal obstruction of breathing and assault with intent to disfigure, when the body was found inside his home, cops and prosecutors confirmed.
The dead woman is believed to be another girlfriend of Owens, a police source said.
A neighbor remembered Owens and a woman living in the apartment, but said they “disappeared” about a month ago.
“It was a guy in his 20s, and she was a young girl,” said the neighbor, who asked not to be named. “It was two people who were staying there, but it wasn’t their apartment. They lived there for about two or three months.”
“I heard their music and a man singing but then nothing,” she added. “They disappeared.”
The building superintendent noticed the window to the apartment was open but didn’t find it out of the ordinary.
“The window was open for the last two weeks, so I didn’t smell nothing,” said the super, Anthony Cruz. “I only found out when a next-door neighbor called to say the police were here. I’m shocked. I never imagined.”
Owens, who also has a tattoo of a musical note on his person, has a long history of robbing and abusing girlfriends, police sources said.
In October 2017 he was arrested on burglary and robbery charges after he used his ex-girlfriend’s keys to break into her Mott Haven apartment and steal her wallet, along with some electronics, police confirmed. He was ultimately convicted of those charges and sentenced to five years in prison before his release on October 2022, according to state records.
On Tuesday, a Bronx Criminal Court judge ordered Owens held without bail for kidnapping and assaulting his surviving girlfriend, according to court documents.