A former Brooklyn handyman has been convicted of killing and dismembering his boss in March of 2006, announced District Attorney Ken Thompson on Thursday, October 15.
According to Thompson’s office, the defendant – 50-year-old Luis Perez of Bushwick – boasted on a secret audio recording that he, in fact, had dismembered the body of 55-year-old Brooklyn property owner Bruce Blackwood.
“Even though we didn’t have a body, we were determined to get justice for Bruce Blackwood and his family,” said Thompson, “and that’s exactly what we did by using the defendant’s own words to convict him.”
According to trial testimony, Blackwood owned several properties in the borough and hired Perez to work in some of the apartments, which he was preparing to rent out. At some point, however, the victim discovered that the defendant had swiped his checkbook, as well as nearly $8,000.
When confronted at one of Blackwood’s properties, Perez – who had a criminal history and did not want to return to prison – then killed Blackwood, and disposed of his body, according to three and a half hours of audiotape secretly recorded by the Perez’s daughter, in which he told her how he choked the victim and then used a machete to cut up his body, disposed of it in construction-grade plastic bags and used hospital-grade bleach to mask the crime scene.
“It’s not about committing the perfect crime, it’s just about how well you clean it up,” the defendant boasted on the audiotape.
Perez was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Blackwood’s body was never found.
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