A Bronx jury Monday found former NYPD officer Eddy Coello guilty of murdering his estranged wife and dumping her body in a heavily wooded area off the Taconic State Parkway in Yorktown last year.
The jury took less than three hours to convict Coello of second-degree murder, according to the New York Post. Three hours was also the time it took Coello to take his wife Tina Adovasio's body out of their Bronx apartment and dump it in Yorktown, the paper wrote based on trial testimony.
During the trial, the jury was shown a pixilated surveillance camera footage, which showed Coello leaving Adovasio's apartment building with a large duffel bag. The woman, 40, was found dead five days after she went missing March 11, 2011.
"Victim Tina Adovasio’s family cheered, cried and yelled as the verdict was read," Antonio Antenucci and Leonard Greene, of the New York Post, wrote in their article.
Adovasio has family in Mahopac who held a service for the mother of four at St. John the Evangelist Church in Mahopac last year. One of the Yorktown police officers working the detail when Adovasio's body was found was her cousin— police officer Mark Rapisarda. According to police, he identified his cousin when her body was discovered. Earlier this month, Rapisarda testified in court.
Coello's career as a police officer ended when was fired from his job in 2000 because a woman had filed a domestic abuse claim against him. Adovasio had filed for divorce from Coello, according to the Daily News, set to leave a situation that had her husband arrested three times for domestic violence against her.
According to news reports, Coello, who worked as a physician's assistant two years prior to the murder, had confessed twice to killing his wife. He faces a minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum of 25 years to life, according to the New York Post. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 1.
Adovasio worked as a nurse in the Maternity Department at the Sound Shore Medical Center in New Rochelle. She leaves behind four children—three children from a previous marriage and a daughter with Coello.
For Patch's coverage, click on the links below:
- Former NYPD Officer Charged With Murder of His Wife
- Updated: Body Found in Yorktown is Missing Bronx Nurse
- Yorktown Cop Testifies in Murder Trial
