Clinton Street murder
Raul Barrera, 33, surrendered to police a few hours after the body of his domestic partner, Sarah Coit, 23, was found in their apartment at 63 Clinton St. with multiple stab wounds and her head nearly severed at 2:37 a.m. Sun., April 10. The suspect turned himself in to the Ninth Precinct after phoning his father from Penn Station asking for advice. Barrera was taken to the Seventh Precinct where he was charged with second degree murder.
Coit, described as a blonde beauty by friends and colleagues at Lacoste where she worked in sales, had frequent loud arguments with the suspect and was heard screaming just before her death in the building between Delancey and Rivington Streets. Coit was the only daughter of Lynde Coit, a financial advisor, and his wife, Anne Taylor, of Riverside, Conn. Coit had been enrolled at Hunter College, where she was studying marketing.
Barrera, who was arrested last year for assaulting a man in midtown, worked freelance in public relations for companies including Propaganda NY and Coleman Entertainment Group. He admitted to police that he killed the victim during an argument about breaking up but he said she first grabbed the kitchen knife that he wrested from her. He was being held without bail pending an April 15 court appearance.
Hudson Square robbery
A woman returning to her home at 117 Varick St. near Broome Street around 10:30 p.m. Fri., April 8, was followed into the vestibule by a man with a silver handgun who said, “Give me everything. I don’t want to hurt you. Just do what I say,” police said. The robber took her cellphone and demanded that she take off her rings. When one of the rings wouldn’t come off quickly, the suspect said, “You’re taking too long. Don’t make me take it.” The thief fled on foot with the victim’s rings, iPhone, and wallet with $800 cash. She told police that she spotted an accomplice standing guard outside the building.
Subway crimes
Transit police arrested Keith Anderson, 51, when they saw him cutting the pocket of a passenger sleeping on a train in the station at Fulton and Church Streets. at 1:05 p.m. Sat., April 9.
On Sat., April 2, police arrested James Robinson, 58, in a train in the Fulton and Church station around 4:35 a.m. for lifting the wallet of a sleeping passenger.
A thief snatched a cellphone from a woman, 24, as she was leaving the subway station at Rector Street and Trinity Place at 9 p.m. Tues., April 5, and fled to the street, police said.
A woman passenger told police that she was waiting for a train on the northbound platform of the Rector and Trinity Place station at 6:55 p.m. Thurs., March 31, when a man grabbed her cellphone from her hand and fled. Police in Brooklyn found the phone a few hours later in the possession of a man arrested for an unrelated phone snatching.
Fake card, fake name
An employee of Jubilee Market, 99 John St., checked the credit card number of man who phoned in an order for 10 cartons of cigarettes, three packages of macaroni and cheese, two six-packs of Heineken and two half-gallons of lemonade at 6:10 p.m. Sat., April 9. The employee called police when he learned the number was from a stolen card. Police arrested the suspect who identified himself as Vuehong Moy, 37, owner of the credit card. But they soon learned the suspect’s real name, Dion Thompson, 40, and charged him with identity theft and grand larceny
Hot fast food
A hamburger vending truck with a following in Tribeca burst into flames around 3:15 p.m. Mon., April 11, when one of its propane tanks exploded near North Moore Street as it was going south on West Street. Mohammed Beydoun, 21, owner of the truck, and an unidentified employee, jumped out and were taken to the Weill burn center at New York Presbyterian Hospital with first and second degree burns. They were on their way to their customary evening vending location in Tribeca when the explosion occurred.
— Albert Amateau
