BROOKLYN — A Bedford-Stuyvesant man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2005 shooting death of his 22-year-old girlfriend, Desiree Cofield, who was shot in the head in the apartment the couple shared. The defendant was arrested following a lengthy reinvestigation of the case.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “Today’s sentence brings the defendant to justice for taking the life of a young mother of two children. Her life mattered. My Cold Case Unit works hard to bring a measure of closure to families such as the one in this case, who deserve to know what happened to their loved ones and that their killers are held responsible. I am committed to pursuing these cases.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Julius Esquilin, 38, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. The defendant was sentenced today to 15 years in prison and five years’ supervised release by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. He pleaded guilty on February 10, 2020 to first-degree manslaughter.
The District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on February 19, 2005, at about 1 a.m., the defendant and his girlfriend, Desiree Cofield, 22, had a dispute outside 642 Greene Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant, which continued inside their apartment on the top floor of that building. A neighbor heard an argument, followed by a single gunshot and observed a blue light flash. The neighbor then heard the deceased’s daughter saying, “Mommy, Mommy,” according to the investigation.
A neighbor called 911 after the defendant banged on the door yelling, “I know you heard that; call the police.” The defendant also called 911 and, when police and EMTs arrived, acted aggressively.
The defendant screamed, broke picture frames and jumped on the victim’s body, according to the investigation. The police discovered the victim on a couch with a single gunshot wound to the head. Her 3-year-old daughter and 4-year-old nephew were awake in the bedroom. The victim and the defendant also had a 2-month-old daughter together, who was not present when police arrived.
Police recovered a .380 caliber shell casing, a matching live round and a note signed by the defendant that said, “Even if I am gone, I still love all of my daughters and my big mouth baby mother, (signed) Julius.” No gun was recovered.
The defendant had a history of abusing the victim, according to neighbors, the victim’s relatives and prior police reports.
The NY Post reported: Esquelin was initially investigated in Cofield’s slaying, but leads fizzled out and her case lay dormant until a cold case unit began re-investigating the crime in recent years.
During interviews with cops in April 2005, court papers show the accused killer denied having killed Cofield, instead saying some guys came to shoot him and decided to whack her instead.
“I told you guys, they came to kill me and they killed her,” he told police as he sat in Rikers Island on another case. “We were celebrating because I had just beat another charge.”
The case was investigated by New York City Police Detective William Simon of the NYPD’s Cold Case Squad, under the sup
