A man weighing “approximately 400 pounds” was suffocated to death by his neighbor during a scuffle outside a mental health facility in Brooklyn, authorities said. The murder suspect claimed self-defense because the victim was twice his size.
According to a criminal complaint, the victim, Brandon Paulino, accused Eduardo Martinez of raping a 3-year-old girl and punching him outside her apartment just after 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
Prosecutors said Paulino was lying on his stomach, exhausted, while attacking Martinez on McDougall Street near Broadway.
Witnesses and Martinez told police that’s when Martinez jumped on his rival’s back and strangled him with his hands.
Martinez told police:[I] I did not try to kill him,” court documents state.
Police found Paulino, who is described as “approximately 400 pounds”, unconscious on the sidewalk after the attack, and he was taken by ambulance to Interface Medical Center, but could not be rescued, the NYPD said. did.
According to the medical examiner’s office, the man died of suffocation.
The two men lived at the McDougall Street Apartments, a housing complex for people with mental health issues.
Martinez’s attorney, Scott Serbin, told the Post that his client was suffering from “some type of psychotic episode” and was trying to protect himself from a much larger man who was making “nonsensical allegations.” He said he was there.
“My client thinks he’s off his medication,” Sarbin said of Paulino.
“The attacker is about 400 pounds and is the first attacker.”
Meanwhile, Servin estimates Martinez weighs “less than 200 pounds” and is “a normal, average-sized guy.”
But this isn’t Martinez’s first run-in with the law.
He was charged with assault after attacking a nurse at New York City Health Hospital Harlem in 2004, police said.
“He took the syringe from the nurse and hit her in the shoulder with it,” a police source told the Post.
At his arraignment Wednesday in Brooklyn Criminal Court, Martinez pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
Judge Monique Hollaman set cash bail at $50,000.
His next court appearance is March 1.
