Man gets 25-to-life in '89 Hempstead murder
A file photo of cops leading Joey Bethea out of police headquarters in Mineola. (September 30, 2009) Credit: Howard Schnapp
Joey Bethea, who avoided homicide investigators' scrutiny for two decades until DNA connected him to the rape and murder of a young woman in 1989, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Friday.
Before his sentencing, Bethea, 40, said he did not kill Dorothy LeConte, 22, of North Bergen, N.J., who had traveled to Hempstead to visit relatives.
"You lost your loved one," Bethea said to LeConte's relatives, who were in the courtroom. "I did not rape, nor did I take that young lady's life."
"Don't talk to me," snapped Patricia LeConte, 46, Dorothy LeConte's sister.
Nassau County Judge Jerald S. Carter sentenced Bethea to the maximum time in prison.
A jury in November found Bethea, who was living in upstate Sidney when he was arrested, guilty of second-degree murder and felony murder in the slaying of LeConte, a Haitian immigrant who had been strangled. Her body was dumped near Hempstead High School.
The jury seemed to reach the right conclusion, Carter said, adding that if Bethea didn't kill LeConte, "I don't know what planet . . . we're dealing with."
Carter rejected a plea for a lesser sentence from Bethea's attorney, Joe LoPiccolo of Garden City.
"This young lady's life was snuffed out," Carter said to Bethea. "You had 22 years to enjoy life" after the slaying.
About a half-dozen of LeConte's relatives sat in court during the sentencing. Outside afterward, Patricia LeConte, of Roslyn, wiped tears as family embraced her.
"Finally, I can have closure," LeConte said. "I'm very grateful for the sentence."
Before Bethea, no one had been arrested or charged in the case. A DNA swab connected Bethea to the murder after his arrest in 2009 on petty larceny charges. He was accused of stealing from a donation jar at an upstate gas station.
Dorothy LeConte had taken a bus from New Jersey to visit her brother and aunt in Hempstead, but she never arrived, police said.
Two school custodians found her body in a small pool of water in a creek bed. The area was just off Peninsula Boulevard, a few blocks from the aunt's home.
In 2002, DNA samples from LeConte's body were submitted to the State Police lab, but no matches were immediately found.
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