Cops: Suspect in ex-teacher's death was angry she dressed their son as a girl
NEW YORK -- Police say a New York City man has confessed to killing his former high school teacher and their 4-year-old son because he was angry that the woman was dressing the boy in girl’s clothing.
Twenty-three-year-old Isaac Infante was arraigned Wednesday on murder charges in the deaths of 36-year-old Felicia Barahona and their son Miguel.
Barahona was found dead Monday in her Harlem apartment with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck. The boy was discovered in the bathtub.
Chief of Detectives Bob Boyce says Infante said he felt antagonized when Barahona dressed Miguel in girl’s clothes. According to CBS New York, during the confession, Infante told police he didn’t like how the woman was raising the child, including feeding him fast food. He also allegedly said Barahona was interfering with his relationship with his new girlfriend.
The couple began an affair when the woman was Infante’s science teacher at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx.
Court appointed defense attorney Alan Farbman said it’s his job to defend Infante, but “as a human it makes you sad. It’s going to affect you.”
Police say Infante admitted he and Barahona “got into an argument” and “he knocked her to the ground in the living room of her third floor apartment,” reports CBS new York.
He allegedly told police the woman was holding a pair of scissors when she got up. Infante said he then strangled the woman with a phone cord, police say.
In court Wednesday, prosecutors say the four-year-old child watched his mother die, went into the bathroom crying and asked for his mother just before Infante allegedly strangled him with a computer cord and placed him face down in the bathtub, reports CBS New York.
Infante, who had been living in Pennsylvania, allegedly returned there and partied with friends and family for Christmas, knowing the bodies hadn’t yet been discovered, the station reports.
A 2012 report by school investigators determined Barahona began a sexual relationship with Infante when he turned 18, reports CBS New York. Barahona was fired as a New York City public school teacher, but she was never arrested for the relationship.
Infante has been charged with two counts of second-degree and one count of first-degree murder.