Francisco Acevedo

Last updated
Francisco Acevedo
Born
Francisco Acevedo

(1968-09-02) September 2, 1968 (age 56)
Conviction(s) Murder x3
Criminal penalty75 years to life imprisonment
Details
Victims3
Span of crimes
1989–1996
CountryUnited States
State(s) New York
Date apprehended
April 21, 2010

Francisco Acevedo (born September 2, 1968) is an American serial killer who was convicted of strangling three women to death in New York between 1989 and 1996. Acevedo was linked to the murders in 2009 after voluntarily giving his DNA as a parole condition for drunk driving. In 2012, he was sentenced to 75 years to life imprisonment. [1]

Contents

Early life

Francisco Acevedo was born in Meriden, Connecticut on September 2, 1968, one of three children to Yadira Acevedo. His parents divorced when he was 14 years old, after which he moved in with his father. According to court records, he abused alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine at the age of 12.

Acevedo dropped out of high school during his freshman year and worked a series of jobs, including as a laborer, a cook at a pizzeria, a dishwasher at Testa's Silvertown Inn, and a midnight baker at Dunkin' Donuts.

In the 1990s, he was living in Mount Vernon, New York. He met his wife while working at New Way Kitchen, with whom he would have two sons. [2]

Crimes and trial

On July 3, 1986, three years before his first known murder, Acevedo picked up a woman in his company truck in Meriden and drove her to a secluded area, where he bound her hands, blindfolded, and sexually assaulted her. The woman fled after he fell asleep, and he was arrested and sentenced to ten years in prison. He was released in June 1988.

On November 11, 1997, he was charged with third-degree assault on his wife in Yonkers; however, the charge was later dismissed. On August 30, 1998, he was arrested again for breaking his wife's nose after punching her in the face. He was convicted of a misdemeanor and served nine months in jail. [2]

Acevedo was arrested in Brentwood on January 26, 2009, his fourth time for drunk driving. While in prison, he gave a sample of his DNA as part of an optional parole application. His DNA was linked to evidence from three decade-old murder victims:

Each victim was found naked and beaten, and were posed after their deaths. [3] Investigators were aware of the murders being connected due to matching DNA found on each victim. However, they had no suspect whose DNA matched prior to Acevedo's arrest.

Acevedo maintained his innocence, claiming that he had sexual intercourse with the victims but had no involvement in their murders. He was acquitted of three counts of rape, as the victims were known prostitutes. [4] He was found guilty of the murders on the first day of jury deliberations and was sentenced three times to 25 years to life imprisonment, each to be served consecutively, totaling to a minimum of 75 years. [1] He is currently incarcerated at Green Haven Correctional Facility.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colin Pitchfork</span> English child-murderer and rapist (born 1960)

Colin Pitchfork is an English child-murderer and child-rapist. He was the first person convicted of rape and murder using DNA profiling after he murdered two girls in neighbouring Leicestershire villages: Lynda Mann in Narborough in November 1983 and Dawn Ashworth in Enderby in July 1986. He was arrested on 19 September 1987 and sentenced to life imprisonment on 22 January 1988 after pleading guilty to both murders. The sentencing judge gave him a 30-year minimum term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harvey Glatman</span> American serial killer (1927–1959)

Harvey Murray Glatman was an American serial killer and rapist during the late 1950s. He was known in the media as the Lonely Hearts Killer and the Glamour Girl Slayer. He would use several pseudonyms, posing as a professional photographer to lure his victims with the promise of a modeling career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark Goudeau</span> American serial killer and rapist on death row

Mark Goudeau is an American serial killer, kidnapper, thief and rapist. Goudeau terrorized victims in the Phoenix metro area between August 2005 and June 2006; coincidentally, Goudeau was active at the same time as two other Phoenix serial killers, jointly known as the "Serial Shooters.”

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Altemio Sanchez</span> Serial killer and rapist

Altemio C. Sanchez, also known as the Bike Path Rapist, was a serial killer, of Puerto Rican descent, who is known to have raped and murdered at least three women, and raped at least 9 to 15 girls and women in and around Buffalo, New York, during a 31-year span from 1975, though perhaps earlier, to 2006. He was apprehended in 2007 through DNA evidence and sentenced to 75 years-to-life, serving 16 years before dying from apparent suicide in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Hayes (serial killer)</span> American convicted serial killer

Robert Tyrone Hayes is an American serial killer who has been convicted of three murders in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area between December 2005 and February 2006. DNA tests have also linked him to a fourth murder committed in March 2016. In addition, he remains the prime suspect in the murder of another woman in December 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Hughes (serial killer)</span> American serial killer

Michael Hubert Hughes is a convicted American serial killer on death row in San Quentin. Hughes was initially sentenced to life without parole for the murders of four women and girls in California. Later, he was convicted of committing three further murders of women, linked to the crimes via DNA profiling. At the second trial, he was sentenced to the death penalty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Floyd Thomas Jr.</span> Convicted American serial killer

John Floyd Thomas Jr. is an American serial killer, serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for the murders of seven white women in the Los Angeles area during the 1970s and 1980s. Police suspect Thomas committed 10 to 15 more murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Walter E. Ellis</span> American serial killer and rapist

Walter Earl Ellis, known as The Milwaukee North Side Strangler, was an American serial killer who raped and strangled at least seven women in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin between 1986 and 2007. Until May 2009, the killings were considered to be independent of one another, but were then linked together via DNA profiling. Ellis was arrested as a suspect on September 7, 2009, and convicted for the seven murders in February 2011, receiving seven consecutive life sentences without the chance of parole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Alcala</span> American serial killer (1943–2021)

Rodney James Alcala was an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years to life for two further murders committed in New York and was also indicted for a murder in Wyoming, although charges were dropped due to a technicality. While he has been conclusively linked to eight murders, Alcala's true number of victims remains unknown and could be much higher – the actual number could be as high as 130.

Norman Afzal Simons, known as the Station Strangler, is a South African murderer, rapist and suspected serial killer in Cape Town in the late 20th century. He was convicted in 1995 of the rape and murder of 10-year-old Elroy van Rooyen in 1995 and sentenced to 25 years. He became eligible for parole in July 2023 and was released on parole and under 24-hour monitoring in November 2023.

Billy Richard Glaze, also known as "Jesse Sitting Crow" was a convicted American serial killer whose guilt has come into question by the discovery of DNA evidence excluding Glaze and implicating another man.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Kirkland</span> American serial killer on death row

Anthony Kirkland is an American serial killer. Between 2006 and 2009, Kirkland murdered two women and two girls in the Cincinnati area, following a 16-year prison term for the 1987 killing of his girlfriend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony and Nathaniel Cook</span> American criminal brothers

Anthony Cook and Nathaniel Cook are American brothers and serial killers who committed at least nine rape-murders between 1973 and 1981. They were active in Toledo, Ohio, and surrounding areas with most of their victims being young couples. Anthony was arrested and convicted for the final murder, but his and Nathaniel's guilt in the other killings would not be uncovered until Nathaniel was detained for a misdemeanor in 1998, after which DNA profiling exposed their involvement. Both brothers were later convicted and sentenced to long terms of imprisonment; Anthony received multiple life sentences, while Nathaniel was sentenced to 75 years with a minimum of fifteen years served, and he was paroled after eighteen years in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Peder Rasmussen</span> American serial killer (1943–2010)

Terry Peder Rasmussen was an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who was convicted of one murder, and linked to at least five more in a series of crimes that stretched across the contiguous United States between 1978 and 2002. Due to his use of many aliases, most notably "Bob Evans", Rasmussen is known as the Chameleon Killer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samuel Little</span> American serial killer (1940–2020)

Samuel Little was an American serial killer of women who confessed to committing 93 murders between 1970 and 2005. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)'s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program (ViCAP) has confirmed Little's involvement in at least 60 of the 93 confessed murders, the largest number of confirmed victims for any serial killer in United States history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Getreu</span> American serial killer (1944–2023)

John Arthur Getreu was an American serial killer who was convicted of one murder during 1963 in West Germany and convicted of two more that took place in 1973 and 1974 in the United States. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for the latter murders, and died at the California Health Care Facility while serving his sentence. He was identified through genetic genealogy by CeCe Moore in 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Halbower</span> American murderer and suspected serial killer

Rodney Lynn Halbower is an American serial killer. He is the prime suspect in the Gypsy Hill killings, a series of murders of young women in San Mateo County, California and Reno, Nevada), whose killer was named The San Mateo Slasher. In March 2014, based on DNA profiling, Halbower was named as a person of interest in the murders. By this time, Cathy Woods, a mental patient who was convicted for one of the victims' murders, had already been exonerated after 35 years behind bars. He has been convicted of three murders and is believed to be linked to two murders related to the Gypsy Hill killings. At the time of his identification, Halbower himself had been imprisoned for 38 years in Oregon.

Patrick Baxter is an American serial killer who raped and killed two women and a teenage girl in Westchester County, New York, between 1987 and 1990. Due to DNA profiling, Baxter was arrested for the murders in 2000 while serving a sentence for car theft and was convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment.

Donna R. Perry is an American serial killer. She was charged with three counts of first-degree murder in 2014 for killing three women in 1990. Perry underwent gender-affirming surgery in 2000; her gender identity formed a portion of the defense's argument.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Flowers</span> American serial killer (born 1974)

Norman Keith Flowers is an American serial killer who killed three women by beating and strangling them in their Las Vegas apartments from March to May 2005. DNA left at each crime scene eventually linked him to the killings and he was arrested. Flowers was tried in 2008 and convicted, receiving a life sentence without parole. He entered an alford plea for the remaining charges in 2011 and received two more life sentences.

References

  1. 1 2 Fitzgerald, Jim. "Man convicted of 3 NY killings gets 75 to life". www.newstribune.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  2. 1 2 David, Will. "Suspect in Yonkers serial killings flew under the radar". www.practicalhomicide.com. Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  3. Miller, Carlin. "Unsuspecting Serial Killer Caught with DNA Sample Provided in a Bid to Get Parole, Say Cops". CBS News . Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.
  4. "Man who voluntarily gave up DNA guilty of murders". Deseret News . Archived from the original on March 26, 2023. Retrieved March 26, 2023.