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LES Stabbing Suspect "A Good Person," According To His Dad
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 13, 2011
Modified Apr 13, 2011
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WCBS 2
By
Ben Yakas
Published Apr 13, 2011
Modified Apr 13, 2011
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As family and friends mourned Sarah Coit, the 23-year-old who was stabbed to death over the weekend, more people came forward with stories about Raul Barrera, the man who allegedly confessed to killing Coit in their Lower East Side apartment. Barrera's father, who convinced him to turn himself in, gave his sympathy to the Coit family and spoke about his son: "He's a good person. I'm sure it was the passion in the moment...If I could see [the Coit's] in person, I'd tell them my heart goes out to them," Raul Barrera Sr. told the Post.
Barrera Sr. and his wife visited their son in the jail ward of Bellevue Hospital yesterday, where he has been on suicide watch since being arraigned. A witness told the Post that the accused killer "was crying through the whole time. His mother was on her knees, holding him, praying and crying. Nobody said a word the whole time." Barrera's ex-girlfriend whom he has a child with, Marisol Reyes, told the News that she felt "sorry about the girl's family," but her ex-husband alleges that she was reluctant to say anything more because Barrera had beat her up in the past. "People told me what he was doing to her. He used to hit my ex-wife," said Ramon Pabey. A police report confirms Pabey filed a harassment claim against Barrera in March 2003.
A friend of Reyes told the News that Barrera made fun of Reyes for getting fat, and routinely physically harmed her: "He tortured her for three years. She would walk around with black eyes and broken ribs. He's not crazy, he's a bastard." Coit's hairdresser, Amanda Giorgi, gave the Post a similar account about Barrera being a controlling boyfriend: Coit "said she planned on moving apartments when her lease was up, and she wasn't going to tell him where she was going. She was always trying to break up with him, but he wouldn't take no for an answer." Barrera's old boss B.J. Coleman, president of Coleman Entertainment Group, called him a "cool, chill guy:" "He wasn't a monster. He was ambitious. This is not someone who goes around hacking people."
Coit's family and friends are still reeling from the shock of the horrific attack. Many gathered to mourn for her in Greenwich: her old track coach sounded shaken by the attack, and told the News, "We had a moment of silence for her yesterday. We remembered her. Even those students who never met her. We are all part of the same team." Neighbors have been coming forward left and right with their own take on the troubled relationship: "When she first moved in, she was all smiles. Then he came. She became quiet," said Kata Miskovic, who took an apartment in the E. 33rd St. building two years ago.
Some in the building said the screaming and fighting went on for 20 minutes, and neighbors have been forthcoming about their opinions on the couple; one even claimed, "I knew he was going to kill her," which has led some to wonder whether the neighbors have a responsibility to pay more attention to whether abuse was going on. Suzanne Adam, director of Domestic Abuse Services at the YWCA of Greenwich, thinks this was a classic case of domestic abuse fueled by a need for control: "This was not a random murder. This was about control. And the ultimate way of showing control is by taking someone's life...The fact her face was mutilated shows it was personal. This was a person of great rage."
Tagged
fatal stabbing
LES
Lower East Side
murder
raul barrera
sarah coit
stabbing
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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