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Man Gets 10 Years For Chopping Up Wife And Throwing Her Into Trash
Is 10 years a light sentence?
A Brooklyn man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for violently butchering his wife and then throwing her body out into the trash. As the New York Daily News shares, 42-year-old Phillip Martin confessed to murdering his wife, 43-year-old Diana Rodriguez-Martin, and was sentenced on Wednesday.
Last February, Phillip Martin confessed to authorities that he fatally punched his wife and then chopped up her body with a saw. Prior to that, he let her body decompose for a week inside their apartment in Brooklyn. Following the incident, he put her dismembered body parts in garbage bags and threw them out into a dumpster.
The remains were never found by authorities.
Phillip Martin pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter. He was initially charged with murder and concealment of a body.
Her family spoke out about the heinous nature of the crime. “I can never pass a garbage bag without wondering if Diana's body or someone else's is in there,” said Alba Reyes, Rodriguez-Martin’s aunt. Shared the victim's sister, Valerie Reyes-Jimenez, “I can't even cut up a whole chicken without thinking of Diana and hearing the bones crunch."
Phillip Martin apologized in court for his crime. “I can't express... how sorry I am. I'm sorry,” he said. Judge Miriam Cyrulnik reportedly got tearful listening to Rodriguez-Martin’s family share their grief. “Mr. Martin, I hear the remorse in your voice, but when any of her family closes their eyes at night they'll think of her. I hope everyday of your sentence, when you close your eyes you think of her,” the judge said.
The couple had a history of domestic violence over their 11 years of marriage. Police were called to the couple’s home in eight times in recent years to respond to complaints of domestic violence. Rodriguez-Martin was reportedly arrested twice on charges of attacking her husband. But when she went missing in January 2017, her family suspected Phillip Martin immediately. “She lived with a monster who made her life a living hell,” said Kathy O’Connor, the victim’s relative. “They argued day and night, but who would have thought it would have come to this?” one neighbor said to the Daily News.
[Photo: NBC New York, Police Handout]
