The 44-year-old man who claimed two Black men stabbed his girlfriend to death in a botched robbery in a secluded area of Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx when he stopped to urinate has now been charged with killing her, police said Friday.
Franklin Batallas was charged with murder, assault and weapons possession after his story about muggers killing Anthonella Contreras Linarez, 30 unraveled under questioning by detectives, sources said.
Batallas was described by a police source as having a jealous streak, and that Linarez was in the process of breaking up with him.
The tragedy unfolded about 8:10 p.m. Wednesday when police were called by New Rochelle police after learning that Batallas had driven the victim to Montefiore New Rochelle Hospital, the NYPD said.
Batallas told Bronx detectives that he and the victim were en route to City Island earlier in the night to meet a friend for dinner but that he pulled over in Pelham Bay Park — by City Island Road and Park Driver — to urinate, at which point two Black men on a moped pulled up to the car and demanded money from the victim.
When she refused, he claimed, they repeatedly stabbed her in the face, neck and body — and slashed him in the left arm when he ran from the bushes in a vain attempt to save her.
The attackers then supposedly drove off.
Police were skeptical from the start of the investigation, noting there were few, if any, cameras near where the suspect said the attack happened. It wasn’t yet clear where the murder happened.
“It’s shocking that this would happen,” Richard Allen, 46, a security guard at the Bronx building where the couple lived. “It’s sad, very sad.”
