BY PAUL SCHINDLER | A man charged in the August 19 strangulation murder of his boyfriend in the Bronx took to Facebook in the immediate aftermath of the violence with a series of posts that amounted to a cryptic confession of sorts.
“Forgive me father,” Marcus Bellamy, a 32-year-old Broadway dancer, wrote at 3:57 p.m. that afternoon, just moments after he allegedly killed Bernardo Almonte, Jr., 27, whom the Daily News reported Bellamy told police was his boyfriend.
That post was followed in rapid succession by the following posts:
“For god so lived the world that he gave his only son.”
“Lucifer.”
“I am god. I give life and can take it away. So let it be. #therapture”
“Forgive me. I did it because I love you. I love you all. I loved him also. He told me love and hate are the same emotion. Forgive me. I know not what I do. I did it for love. For god. On high.”
The criminal complaint, which charges Bellamy with murder in the second degree and manslaughter in the first degree in Almonte’s strangling at 104 West 174th Street in the Morris Heights section, puts the time of the killing at approximately 4 p.m.
The Daily News reported that after the killing, Bellamy left the apartment and told a neighbor that he had just slain Almonte.
As of August 23, the Bronx district attorney’s office had not yet indicted Bellamy.
Florida-born Bellamy was a back-up dancer in the Broadway production of “Spider-Man, Turn Off the Darkness,” and was in the ensemble of the 2006 production of “Tarzan.” He also danced in the NBC show “Smash,” and the films “Across the Universe” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Almonte’s Linkedin.com profile identified him as a freelance IT technician.
In the early morning of August 19, between 12 and 15 hours before the killing, Bellamy made a series of bizarre and also cryptic Facebook posts.
At 12:43 a.m., he wrote, “About a month ago.. God sent a thought to me. The thought continued to reoccure [sic] in my mind … So. Now.. I am … Asking god .. To let me know. If it’s true.. God said to me not to worry about Donald Trump being elected into presidency.. Because he will pass away before the voting happens. He will pass away from an illness that no amount of money or medication will be able to save him from. That’s what god said to me.. If it will happen.. I don’t know. God”
About three hours later, he wrote, “I don’t need to do anything. All I need to do is be. God will work out all the details. #relax #earthquake”
And then, at 4:12 a.m., he wrote, “Trust me. This is just the beginning. Of a whole new world.”
In a written statement, Beverly Tillery, executive director of the New York City Anti-Violence Project, said, “We are deeply saddened by the homicide of Bernardo Almonte, and send our condolences to his friends and loved ones. Too often we only hear of LGBTQ intimate partner violence through these most tragic homicides.”
Earlier intervention in relationship violence before it escalates, Tillery added, is essential.
The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Projects documented 15 intimate partner homicides within the LGBTQ community in 2014, the last year for which full data is available. The group has responded to 10 such incidents this year.
