DEFENDANT CONVICTED OF MURDER IN THE BEATING DEATH OF HIS SEVENTEEN YEAR OLD GIRLFRIEND WHEN ARGUMENT ESCALATES INTO JEALOUS RAGE

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 37 year old man was convicted of murder in the death of his 17 year old girlfriend whose dismembered body parts were discovered in three separate locations.

Robert Foster pled guilty to one count of Murder in the 2nd degree in the beating death of Lisa Lennon on August 14, 2000. Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett set sentencing for Monday, May 23, 2005 in Part 60. The judge indicated that Foster would be sentenced to a term of 15 years to life imprisonment to be served consecutive to a four year sentence for an assault conviction in California.

Lennon, the mother of the couple’s then infant son, died as a result of “homicidal violence with multiple blunt force trauma to the head” according to the Medical Examiner. The murder occurred at the couple’s Ward’s Avenue apartment where they had been arguing over the issue of the victim going out on a date with another man.

Foster admitted that he put the victim’s body in the bathtub where he dismembered it before stuffing the body parts into three suitcases for disposal. The suitcases were discovered at locations in the Hudson River, East River and on Rikers Island where one of the suitcases washed ashore. The victim was identified from fingerprints.

Foster fled the jurisdiction following the murder traveling first to Mexico and then to California where he was arrested in May, 2003 for assaulting another girlfriend. Authorities in California then discovered that Foster was wanted for murder in the Bronx. He was convicted on the California assault charge, sentenced to four years imprisonment and subsequently returned to the Bronx.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Robert Bergida of the Investigations Division.