BRONX MAN CONVICTED OF FIRST DEGREE MURDER IN THE “CONTRACT KILLING” OF A 21 YEAR OLD RETAIL SALES CLERK

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today the conviction of a 25 year old man in the stabbing death of a Bronx woman whose body was not recovered until more than two and a half years after the murder was committed.

David Mundo, of 1654 Monroe Avenue, the Bronx, pled guilty to one count of Murder in the 1st degree in the brutal stabbing of Talina Bryant, a twenty one year old retail clothing store sales clerk. Bryant died of multiple stab wounds on September 5, 2000. State Supreme Court Justice Troy Webber set sentencing for Thursday, November 4, 2004 in Part M 40. The judge has indicated that the defendant will be sentenced to a term of 20 years to life imprisonment.

Bryant had been living in a basement apartment on Hull Avenue in the Norwood section of the Bronx, when was reported missing in December 2000. Detectives found traces of blood in the apartment but the victim’s body was not recovered until Mundo was arrested and charged with the murder almost three years later. Mundo admitted killing Bryant and led detectives to the body which he had buried near Metro North Railroad tracks at 237th Street and Bullard Avenue. Bryant had been bound with duct tape, stabbed repeatedly, wrapped in plastic garbage bags and dumped.

Mundo, in pleading guilty to the first degree murder charge, told the court that the victim’s landlord had paid him to kill the woman and that he enlisted the assistance of a second suspect to help him get the job done. The unidentified landlord has never been charged because of insufficient evidence. Mundo’s alleged accomplice, Gilbert Adames, 28, is still awaiting trial. Adames has also been charged with Murder in the 1st degree.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Paul Rosenfeld.