A 43-year-old New York man has been sentenced to more than 20 years in prison for strangling a nurse co-worker to whom he had offered a room when she lost her home in Sandy.
A judge sentenced Richard Bloomfield to 21.5 years in prison, followed by five years post-release supervision, the district attorney's office said Friday. Bloomfield previously pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
Bloomfield was a dialysis tech who worked with 22-year-old Madonna Martin at the Columbia-Presbyterian dialysis center. According to prosecutors, Bloomfield had romantic interest in Martin, who had a boyfriend. When Sandy swamped Martin and her boyfriend's Far Rockaway apartment, Martin lived in her boyfriend's office for a few weeks, but then he moved to Florida for a new job.
Martin was expected to join him in Florida but needed a place to stay in the meantime, and Bloomfield offered her a room in the Mott Haven home he shared with his mother, prosecutors said.
Martin moved in Nov. 19, 2012. Less than five days later, she packed up, ready to move out to join her boyfriend in Florida, and Bloomfield strangled her hours before she was supposed to leave, prosecutors said. He then dragged her body into her car, stuffed all her clothing and belongings in the vehicle and drove off, according to court documents. He dumped her belongings in a dumpster a mile and a half away, maneuvered her body into the driver's seat and waited. Hours later, he called 911.
When police and EMTs responded, he admitted what he’d done, telling them, “I killed my friend. I killed my friend.” And when police went to his apartment and met his mother, she handed them her son’s handwritten note. It was an apology for killing Madonna Martin, court documents said.
At Bloomfield's sentencing, Martin's boyfriend, Mario Perez, said, "Madonna showed me how to enjoy life."
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“Five days she was out of my sight – and that’s all it took for this man to kill her. No time will ever replace the time I would have had with her," he said. "You took pure joy from this world."
