Jan 2, 2007 8:12 pm US/Eastern
Cops: Career Criminal Arrested For Coram Murders
Mother, Son Found Shot Saturday Night In Apartment
GARDEN CITY (CBS/AP) ―
A man with a criminal record dating to the early 1960s was arrested Tuesday, accused of fatally shooting his girlfriend and her son following a dispute over an unpaid loan, police said.
Fernando De Campoamor, 59, of Mount Sinai, was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in First District Court in Central Islip on charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of Amelia Garcia and Ferneliz Cruz, Suffolk County police said.
Garcia, 52, was found fatally wounded and Cruz, 30, was found seriously injured Saturday night, when Cruz's wife returned to a scene of carnage in the basement apartment she shared with her husband, two children and mother-in-law, police Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said.
Detectives said they believe De Campoamor shot each victim once in the head with a handgun following a dispute over money. De Campoamor told detectives he had loaned Garcia several thousand dollars and he became upset that she was not repaying the debt quickly enough, Fitzpatrick said.
De Campoamor, a tow truck driver, spent about seven years in prison for a 1961 killing in New York City and went to prison again in 1968 after shooting someone who survived, Fitzpatrick said. He was arrested on a weapons charge in 1983 and was imprisoned in 1985 for an intentional murder in Queens; he was paroled in 2003.
Fitzpatrick said he did not have specific information on the prior crimes, and there was no immediate information on what lawyer would represent De Campoamor in Wednesday's court proceeding.
Detectives said they believe Cruz and his wife had spent the early evening at a local self-service laundry with their children. Cruz returned home with several loads of washed and folded clothing while his wife, Yessenia Hernandez, waited for a final load to dry.
The family reportedly moved to Long Island from the Dominican Republic about 12 years ago, and Garcia helped with the rearing of her grandchildren.
Neighbor Darlene Kennedy told reporters the family was "always well-mannered, always respectful."
She said one of the couple's young children came running to her door shortly after the discovery Saturday night.
"He just said, 'My grandma and dad are dead,"' Kennedy recalled.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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