NYC BRIEFS

Not-guilty plea for fatal B'klyn crash

A driver has pleaded not guilty to three counts of manslaughter in a crash in Brooklyn that killed a pregnant woman and her husband. The couple's premature baby was delivered after the wreck but died a day later.

Julio Acevedo also pleaded not guilty Thursday to criminally negligent homicide. A lesser charge accuses him of leaving the scene of the Williamsburg accident.

Police say Acevedo was speeding on March 3 before crashing into the livery cab carrying Nachman and Raizy Glauber. He was arrested in Bethlehem, Pa.

His lawyer says it was a tragic accident and not a crime.

Man convicted in girlfriend's drowning

A Queens man has been convicted of second-degree murder for beating and drowning his girlfriend on the beach in Far Rockaway.

District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced the conviction Thursday of David Lynch for killing Althea Lewis in November 2010.

The prosecutor said Lynch besmirched the training he'd received to "defend the weak and protect the innocent" as a National Guardsman and an Iraq War veteran. He punched and bit Lewis during an argument, then threw her into the water.

Suspect held in death of deaf woman, 19

The NYPD has made an arrest in connection with the body of a 19-year-old deaf woman found stuffed in a drum inside her Harlem apartment.

Police Thursday charged Bismark Lithgow, 24, of Manhattan with second-degree murder. The victim, Francis Angelica Alfonso Pellerano, suffered multiple stab wounds to the body.

Police officers arrived at her apartment on Seventh Avenue March 2 to investigate a report of a foul odor. They discovered Pellerano inside the 55-gallon container.

The couple met on the Internet, and authorities said Lithgow apparently also has hearing trouble. Police said she had been planning to leave him and move to the Dominican Republic.

Prison begins for GOP consultant

A Republican political operative who bilked Mayor Michael Bloomberg out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has surrendered to begin his sentence.

John Haggerty Jr. was sentenced in December 2011 to up to 4 years in prison. He remained free while appealing his conviction, rejected in February. He surrendered at State Supreme Court in Manhattan Wednesday.

A jury found Haggerty guilty of conning Bloomberg into putting up $1.2 million for an elaborate 2009 poll-monitoring effort during his run for a third term. Haggerty pocketed $750,000 which his lawyer said he has repaid as part of his sentence.

2 charged in death of gay man in Queens

The NYPD has arrested two men in connection with the death of a gay man in his Queens apartment.

Police say Elijah Agyepong of the Bronx was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree murder. Cecil Golden of the Bronx was arrested a day earlier and also charged with first-degree murder.

The victim, David Rangel, was found dead at his Jackson Heights apartment on Jan. 26.

Skelos endorses Catsimatidis' bid

John Catsimatidis picked up the endorsement Thursday of the state Legislature's top Republican in his bid for the GOP nomination in the New York City mayor's race.

Senate co-leader Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) said the grocery magnate was "best qualified" among the handful of Republican hopefuls.

"John is a lifelong resident of New York City. He was educated in its public school system and with hard work and determination built successful businesses that have made him a leader of the city's business community," Skelos said in a statement. "John Catsimatidis knows what it takes to create jobs; he's created tens of thousands in the private sector and will do the same as mayor." -- YANCEY ROY

Compiled with wire service reports