Drug twist in SI couple’s slay
‘Crack’ & pills inside tragic home
The double murder of a pregnant Staten Island woman and her boyfriend was the result of a drug robbery gone awry, law-enforcement sources told The Post on Tuesday.
“A quantity of drugs” was found in the Arlington home of victims Ana Desousa, 33, and her boyfriend, Alafia Rodriguez, 46, when their bodies were discovered after 5 p.m. Monday, the sources said. Police found three small, twisttied plastic bags of suspected crack cocaine and six sandwichsize bags of prescription pills, they said.
The suspect, Philip Moreno (inset), 45, is believed to have gone to the home to swipe drugs and cash, the sources said. He had a gun, a silencer and a utility knife on him at the time, police said.
“Just seemed so coldblooded,” a law-enforcement source said.
Moreno was caught trying to flee as cops responded to reports of shots fired at the address, the sources said. It was unclear if the silencer was used.
Already a convicted killer, Moreno was charged Tuesday with the couple’s murders as well as other raps, including acting in a manner injurious to a child.
A 2-year-old girl, believed to be the slain couple’s daughter, was found unharmed in the home.
Another woman was found shot in the living room along with the two dead victims, police have said.
She was out of surgery, but remained hospitalized in critical condition Tuesday, the sources said.
Rodriguez had been arrested 35 times on charges that include assault, assault on a cop and burglary, as well as drug offenses.
Desousa, who was seven-months pregnant, had been arrested 13 times, including for larceny and robbery.
The wounded woman, a 43-yearold Staten Island resident who didn’t live in the home, has two sealed arrests, the sources said.
Moreno has been arrested at least 15 times, including for a 1992 murder right around the corner from Monday’s bloodshed.
He was convicted of that slaying and served about 14 years behind bars before being released in 2007.
He was on parole for a 2017 felony conviction at the time of Monday’s slayings, the Staten Island Advance reported.
Moreno has also been arrested three times on gun charges and several times on drug raps, sources told The Post.
Rodriguez’s mother sobbed when reached by phone at her Florida home Tuesday.
“I don’t know why,” she said of his death.