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Man Questioned In East Harlem Granny Slay Has Family Ties
By
Garth Johnston
Published Oct 27, 2011
Modified Oct 27, 2011
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NYPD
By
Garth Johnston
Published Oct 27, 2011
Modified Oct 27, 2011
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Police are currently questioning, but have not yet charged, 35-year-old Gregory Velez in regards to the Tuesday killing of 73-year-old grandmother Julia Hernandez. One of Hernandez's daughters found the much-loved matriarch Tuesday evening in her East Harlem apartment bound up and suffocated with a plastic bag. Her family believes she was murdered for a 46-inch flat-screen TV, a cell phone and some jewelry which was missing from her apartment.
Gregory Velez, who has a rap sheet that includes stints in jail for drug sales and robbery as well charges for assault and harassment, knew the victim. He is the father of Hernandez's great-granddaughter. Police took him in for questioning yesterday afternoon.
"This was personal. This was a vendetta," the victim's daughter Jeanette Hernandez (who found the body) told the News, though she declined to elaborate on who she thought was responsible. "There was no need to suffocate her."
Tagged
crime
east harlem
flat screen tv
julia hernandez
manhattan
murder
nypd
wagner houses
Garth Johnston
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