Man Who Killed 2 Girlfriends Convicted in Third Woman's Death

The police first began investigating the now-88-year-old Harvey A. Marcelin for the murder of Susan Leyden, 68, when her torso was found inside a shopping cart outside of a pawn shop in Brooklyn, N.Y. in March 2022. Her head and some of her severed limbs were later found inside Marcelin’s apartment.

Marcelin and Leyden had known each other for about two years after staying in the same shelter in the Bronx in 2019, but the exact nature of their relationship is unknown. During his sentencing, Marclin said that he had “adored” Leyden, and maintained his innocence, saying that he was being “railroaded through a kangaroo court”. 

In May 2026, Marcelin was convicted of first-degree murder, evidence tampering and concealment of a human corpse in Leyden’s killing. In a Brooklyn courtroom on June 10, he was sentenced once again to life in prison without parole. 

The investigation into Leyden’s gruesome murder and dismemberment first began when a passerby discovered her torso inside a shopping cart on the street in East New York and called 911.

A surveillance video obtained as part of the investigation shows Leyden entering Marcelin’s building on February 27, 2026, and it also captured Marcelin later using a large bloody bag to move some of her remains. 

Another security camera video from a dollar store in Queens showed the parolee riding an electric scooter through the store with what investigators identified as one of Leyden's legs in a black plastic bag on the seat. Allegations of violence committed by Marcelin go back to 1952; when he was 14, Marcelin was admitted to a hospital and underwent a psychiatric evaluation after allegedly attempting to sexually assault an 8-year-old girl.

Hospital records from a voluntary evaluation at Bellevue Hospital a decade later suggest that he was “not psychotic" but refer to him as having "delusional grandiosity," "suggestions of chronic schizophrenia" and "paranoid reaction personality." Now, Leyden is the third woman that Marcelin has been convicted of killing, having served more than half of his life in prison for the murders of two former girlfriends: Jacqueline Bonds in 1963 and Anna Laura Serrera Miranda in 1985. 

Back in 1963, Marcelin was on trial for the rape and assault of a woman named Clementine Benifield. His alibi for the night of the crime was that he had been with his girlfriend, Bonds, during Benifeld’s assault. On April 18, 1963, the same day that she was supposed to appear in court to confirm Marcelin’s alibi before a grand jury, Bonds was found shot to death in her home. Marcelin had brought a gun to Bonds’ apartment and first shot her in a public hallway before she turned and fled into a bedroom, where he shot her again. Bonds then staggered into the living room, where she collapsed and died with three bullet wounds. According to her mother, Bonds had attempted to break up with Marcelin just six weeks before her death. Marcelin was convicted of the murder and given a life sentence.

In May 1984, Marcelin was granted parole under the condition of lifetime supervision. Only one year later, Marcelin was again implicated in the death of another woman. Marcelin stabbed Anna Laura Serrera Miranda to death during a drug-fueled argument on October 29, 1985, her body ultimately bearing over 30 stab wounds. He then dismembered her, placing the body parts into plastic bags and leaving them strewn across Central Park. 

Marcelin did not deny killing Miranda but maintained throughout the trial that he had acted in self-defense. In 1986, he was convicted of Miranda’s murder, but the charge was eventually downgraded to manslaughter after he agreed to a plea deal. Ultimately, only 12 additional years were added to his prison sentence, and he was again allowed to apply for parole.

Between 1985 and 2019, Marcelin applied for parole 15 times, but it was always denied until June 2019, when he gave his word to a parole board that he would never reoffend. 

A representative from the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said that Marcelin had met the criteria for release. He had completed coursework and therapy and had letters of recommendation from groups that work with former inmates Also, because of his advanced age, the prison system deemed him unlikely to commit another violent offense. 

After one hour of deliberations, a New York jury found Marcelin guilty of Leyden’s murder in May 2026. Three months later, Marclin smiled at the courtroom as he appeared for his sentencing in Downtown Brooklyn. He wore a brown beanie and jacket and a pair of thick rimmed glasses, appearing frail and slightly hunched as he was wheeled out in a wheelchair to face the court. Justice Danny K. Chun sentenced Marcelin to life in prison without parole, noting the strange circumstance which had seen him released twice before, and dismissing the defense's arguments about the elderly defendant's poor health. “Regardless of your age, if you were ever to be released again I have no doubt that you would kill again,” Chun said.