Bronx News Roundup, Sept. 15

NY1 has all the results from last night's Democratic primary. If you missed our coverage, you can read our  tweets from various election parties on the right side of this page. And we'll have more from several Bronx races later today, but until then, here are some highlights:

• The biggest story of the night: Gustavo Rivera beat out incumbent Pedro Espada by a pretty significant margin. We'll post more on both candidates' events last night in a bit. For more, see here, here, and here, and pretty much everywhere else. Hiram Monserrate, the former Queens senator who helped Espada stage the Senate coup last year and who has faced his own share of legal troubles, also lost last night in his bid for State Assembly. 

• Besides Espada, every other Bronx incumbent in the Senate and Assembly who faced a primary challenge came out victorious. 

• Sen. Eric Schneiderman, whose district includes parts of Riverdale, will head into November's election as the Democratic candidate for Attorney General. He was one of five candidates vying for the spot, and just barely defeated candidate Kathleen Rice.

On to some other, non-election Bronx news:

Four people were injured in an apartment fire that broke out this morning on Bronx Park Avenue. 

A disgruntled worker who was fired from his job at a Domino's pizza set fire to two locations of the chain restaurant--one on White Plains Road and the other on Boston Road. No one was injured. 

A suspect in the Riverdale synagogue bomb plot apparently forgot to set the timer on one of his explosive devices, according to recorded tapes play during the trial. 

Jay-Z and Eminem wrapped up their concert series last night at Yankee Stadium. The performance brought fans to tears, according to MTV.com

City Limits has this piece on the death of Norwood resident Billy Murphy, and on the alarming raise in violent acts committed against the homeless (see more on Murphy's death in the Norwood News, here.)

Residents in Woodlawn suspect someone targeting stray cats may have poisoned a family's pet dog. 

The Daily News writes about a student exchange program between Bronx CUNY Prep students and a school in Berlin, Germany. 

52nd Precinct Treating Death of Homeless Man as an Accident

Last week, the Norwood News published an in-depth look at the death of a local homeless man named Billy Murphy, aka "Peanut."

Most of the people we spoke with, including friends and others who knew him, believed Murphy was savagely beaten, either before or after falling.  Murphy, who had a serious drinking problem and bad legs, was prone to falling and friends say he could be combative, especially when drunk.

Vicar Bob Rainis of Epiphany Lutheran Church, a former NYPD homicide detective who gave Murphy his last rites hours before he died on Sunday, Aug. 15, said Murphy's wounds indicated that he had suffered more than just a fall.

"I think he went down, but the other wounds indicate it must be the result of a violent altercation," he said. 

But today, Deputy Inspector John D'Adamo said 52nd Precinct detectives had gathered no evidence that pointed to Murphy being the victim of a beating prior to his death. D'Adamo said detectives spoke with at least one witness who told them they had seen Murphy on the night before he went into a coma and that it looked like he had suffered a head wound. When the witnessed asked him what happened, Murphy replied, "I fell," according to D'Adamo.

Rainis said he had heard a similar story, but that something must have happened to Murphy between that point and when somebody called 911 to say they had found Murphy unconscious."There's a 20 to 25 minute period where nobody can attest to what happened to him," Rainis said.

D'Adamo said the investigation was still ongoing and that Medical Examiner's Office was still in the process of completing its analysis. He added that his detectives were all ears if somebody wanted to come forward with new evidence or information. The Medical Examiner's Office did not immediately return phone calls seeking information.

Muphy's death was the latest in as string of what appear to be violent incidents involving the local homeless population. D'Adamo said he wasn't aware of any trends that would suggest people were targeting the this population, but added that he would look into the matter.

The Mysterious Death of Norwood 'Fixture' Billy (Peanut) Murphy

Born premature on Aug. 25, 1962, Billy Murphy was a tiny baby who looked like a little "peanut," one of his older brothers said at the time. The name stuck. Even as a grown-up, everyone knew him as "Peanut."

Last Wednesday night, a gimpy-legged "Peanut" Murphy walked out of Whalen Park, on the corner of 205th Street and Perry Avenue in Norwood, where he drank Cobra malt liquor -- on most nights and days for the past two decades -- to pick up some more beer. Probably from the Family Grocery, near Rochambeau Avenue, where we worked for a time (and was paid in beer and cigarettes, according to a friend).

The next day, Murphy lay brain dead at St. Barnabas Hospital, his face and head swollen to the point that he was nearly unrecognizable. Vicar Bob Rainis of Epiphany Lutheran, where Murphy often slept and received the sacrament, said Murphy was so badly beaten and bruised, he mostly identified him by the shamrock tattoo on his forearm.

Rainis read Murphy his last rites on Saturday and he died early Sunday morning, at the age of 47, just 10 days before his birthday.

While most believe Murphy fatally hit his head as the result of bad fall, many believe that even if he did fall (which he was prone to as a heavy drinker with bad legs, the result of a scaffolding accident that left him permanently hobbled.), he was savagely beaten beforehand. In other words, Murphy was murdered.

Police could not be immediately reached for comment, but we'll keep trying.

McKeon Funeral Home, located just a block from Whalen, is taking care of all the funeral arrangements. There will be a wake starting at 5 p.m. tomorrow at Epiphany Lutheran on E. 206th Street, just down the street from Bainbridge Avenue.The funeral service will begin at 7 p.m.

By all accounts, Murphy was a nice guy who struggled mightily with alcohol and stubbornly refused any public assistance aside from the kindness of friends and the congregation at Epiphany Lutheran.

"He's the sweetest man I ever met," said Jeanie Brady, one of Murphy's friends, who lives near Rochambeau and 206th Street. "He used to help everyone but himself."  

Brady called Murphy a "piece of fixture in the neighborhood."

"Believe it or not," Rainis said, "Billy was one of our greatest ambassadors. He would talk to people walking by the church and say, 'You coming to church on Sunday? You should. You're going to love this place.'"

Rainis, a former cop, said he's not sure if police have classified Murphy's case as a homicide, but he and many of his friends at Whalen Park believe it was just that.

"I believe he was killed," said Savcho Sanev in a thick Bulgarian accent. Earlier today Sanev, who calls Murphy his "brother," and four of Murphy's other friends, sat on a bench at Whalen Park, drinking Cobras and mourning their loss.

Some speculated that Murphy's beating may have come at the hands of opportunistic teenagers who saw the small drunk homeless man as an easy target. Others said it could have been a gang initiation. Others said maybe he fell really really hard this time.

But Murphy's Whalen Park friends say police told them they were treating the case as homicide and that they told them that Murphy sustained 10 broken ribs, not something likely to happen from a simple fall, however intoxicated he may have been.

"I'm so (expletive) sad," Sanev said.