BRONX MAN SENTENCED TO 50 YEARS IMPRISONMENT IN THE SHOOTING DEATHS OF HIS WIFE AND HER SISTER

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 34-year-old convicted killer has been sentenced to 50 years in prison for shooting to death his common law wife and her sister in the couple’s apartment nearly two years ago.

Edelmiro Cesareo was found guilty last May on two counts of Manslaughter in the 1st degree in the deaths of Loreen Merchan, 32, and Yasmin Merchan, 27. The jury also convicted Cesareo on one count of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd degree and two counts of Endangering the Welfare of a Child. The jury deliberated for four days before finding Cesareo guilty of manslaughter after considering arguments by his attorney that he had acted with “extreme emotional disturbance.” Cesareo had been indicted for murder.

Acting State Supreme Court Justice John Carter sentenced Cesareo to two consecutive terms of 25 years imprisonment on the manslaughter charges for a total of 50 years behind bars. Cesareo also received a 15-year sentence on the gun charge and one year in jail on each of the child endangerment charges. Those sentences are to run concurrent to the 50-year sentence for the two fatal shootings.

Cesareo shot and killed his wife and sister-in-law during an argument over the sister-in- law’s extended stays with the couple in their Throggs Neck Boulevard apartment. The People argued that Cesareo was angry because Yasmin Merchan was on the telephone making good on her threat to notify police that he was a wife beater. Merchan had witnessed some of the beatings because she would travel to the Bronx from her residence in Waterbury, Connecticut and stay with Loreen Merchan for weeks at a time. Cesareo’s argument with Yasmin Merchan escalated and spun out of control. When Cesareo held a gun to the woman’s head, she challenged his manhood by telling him that he did not have the guts to pull the trigger. Cesareo became enraged and called out to his wife who was outside on the balcony. When Loreen Merchan walked into the room, Cesareo shot her in the head and then fired at Yasmin Merchan when she attempted to aid her sister. The fatal shootings were witnessed by the couple’s teenage daughters. Cesareo was arrested several days later in Puerto Rico where he had fled after the shootings.

Senior Trial Assistant District Attorney Bruce Birns and Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Cruz prosecuted the case.