Dr. Robert Reza, convicted LI murderer, dies

Robert Reza, the Bayport physician who was convicted in the 1990 killing of his wife while having an affair with the organist at his family's church, has died in prison, state prison officials said. He was 68.

Reza, who was a pulmonary specialist and professor of medicine at Stony Brook University Hospital, died Aug. 26 while serving a 25-years-to-life sentence in the Fishkill Correctional Facility in upstate Beacon, said Linda Foglia, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.

Foglia said Reza died of natural causes.

He was convicted in 1992 of second-degree murder in the Dec. 12, 1990, slaying of Marilyn Reza, 47.

At trial, Assistant Suffolk District Attorney Michael Ahearn said Robert Reza shot and then strangled Marilyn Reza "to finish what he'd started."

Reza then returned to Washington, D.C., where he was attending a medical conference. Police said he had left the conference to kill his wife and returned to establish an alibi.

Kathy Senese, the organist at the Sayville church where Reza was an elder, said at the time that she had been having an affair with Reza for the six months before Marilyn Reza's death.

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She also said she had left her husband because Reza wanted to marry her.