Slay susp was moving target, say cops
A man accused of killing his pregnant ex-girlfriend in front of her two young children bounced from apartment to apartment until cops caught him four days after the shooting, a prosecutor said Friday.
Justin Soriano, 40, was ordered held without bail at his arraignment in Manhattan Criminal Court.
“He’s charged with the close-range execution of a young mother expecting her third child next month,” a Manhattan assistant district attorney said during a court hearing.
The killing occurred “in front of her children, her boyfriend’s children, and other witnesses,” the prosecutor said.
During his four days on the lam, Soriano stayed in “apartment after apartment” until he was arrested by police officers in the Bronx early Thursday, the assistant DA said.
“This defendant has insisted to the police and the district attorney’s office that he did not commit this crime,” said the prosecutor, adding Soriano’s alibi was “vague.”
Soriano’s lawyer, Zwi Wasserstein, said his client strongly denies the allegations. “They have the wrong person,” Wasserstein said.
Soriano was busted Thursday in the murder of Shanice Young, 31, at about 1:15 a.m. Sunday on W. 128th
St. near Frederick Douglass Blvd. in Harlem.
In the final moments of Young’s life, Soriano picked an argument with her current boyfriend — with whom he’d feuded for weeks over who was the father of her unborn child, police sources said.
Soriano pulled out a gun, and chased Young’s boyfriend away from the scene.
After the boyfriend fled, sources said, Young confronted Soriano and asked: “Why are doing this?”
“Why am I doing what?” Soriano answered.
Soriano then fired at her three times in the head, as her two daughters, ages 15 and 6, watched on horror, authorities said. Young died later at Harlem Hospital.
Young was due to have her baby this week, heartbroken relatives said.
Soriano has a long history of domestic violence in his relationships, said prosecutors.
During his two- to four-year relationship with Young, he physically and verbally abused her multiple times, a prosecutor said in court.
He also was accused of violent feuds with two other exes with whom he has children, said the prosecutor.
Sorianos’ record also includes four felony drug convictions and a misdemeanor conviction for false impersonation. He finished his last prison stint in 2018, records show.