Brooklyn, NY: Brooklyn mother fatally strangled by lover angry that she left a party early: cops

By Matthew Lysiak, Sarah Armaghan and Jonathan Lemire
DAILY NEWS WRITERS
Originally Published:Thursday, February 18th 2010, 12:07 PM
Updated: Thursday, February 18th 2010, 11:29 PM
The deadly warning came in a text message.

A Brooklyn man, enraged that his girlfriend left a party without telling him, sent her a text threatening to kill her - and a short time later, he did, police said.

Michelle Fernandez, a 25-year-old mother of two, was beaten and strangled Thursday, moments after her married lover, Stacy (Cuzo) Stricklin, followed her to her Brownsville apartment, police said.

"He came knocking at the door, and I opened it. Nothing seemed wrong," said a tearful Anita Fernandez, 59, who was baby-sitting her daughter's two children and allowed Stricklin to enter just before 2 a.m.

"A little bit later, I heard a loud thump on the floor," she cried. "He was stomping my baby."

After begging a neighbor to call 911, Anita Fernandez dashed back into her daughter's bedroom and found her body sprawled on the floor.

"He stuffed her under the bed. Half her body was sticking out," Anita Fernandez said. "I couldn't believe it."

Michelle Fernandez was strangled and had been hit in the head, police said.

Stricklin - who is married to a woman who lives two floors above Fernandez - calmly walked away with blood on his mouth from biting his victim, witnesses told police.

He did not flee the apartment building after the killing, instead he openly chatted about the murder with relatives while he snorted cocaine, witnesses said.

"His cousin asked, 'Why would you kill her?'" said Samiyah Washington, 17. "Stacy looked at him and said, 'Why would she leave the party? She should have never left.'"

Police arrived and arrested Stricklin, 39. He was charged with second-degree murder, police said.

"The cops came up to him and he didn't run," Washington said. "He didn't seem like he cared."

Friends of Fernandez said Stricklin texted his threat shortly before he killed her. Investigators were searching her phone.

Stricklin has prior arrests for assault, menacing and harassment, according to records.jlemire@nydailynews.com



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