Crime and Courts

NYC Man Allegedly Beat His Teen Cousin to Death for Interrupting Netflix

32-year-old Mitchaux Booker is being held without bail at Rikers Island

New,York,City,-,Jun,9:,Classic,Nypd,Car,In

A 32-year-old New York City man could soon be facing murder charges for the death of his teen cousin allegedly killed over the summer for interrupting the man while he watched Netflix.

Police say 15-year-old Jallen McConnell, from Athens, Georgia, died in late June after he was discovered unresponsive in the bathtub of an apartment at the Wise Houses on W. 94th Street. EMS transported the teen to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

According to police sources, the teen had traveled to New York City to spend the summer in the Upper West Side apartment where Mitchaux Booker, his older cousin, lives.

On June 30, two days after McConnell died, police arrested Booker on charges of assault and endangering the welfare of a physically disabled person.

The criminal charges could be upgraded following the city medical examiner's finished report on the Georgia teen's death. Police officials on Friday said his death has been reclassified as a homicide.

Law enforcement sources say McConnell's autopsy report detailed bruises and cuts up and down his body. The criminal complaint against Booker says the Upper West Side resident confessed to beating his cousin "at least fifty times" with a belt.

Booker originally claimed his cousin collapsed in the bathtub on June 28 after coming home from a street fight.

Instead, sources say, the 32-year-old allegedly assaulted McConnell for interrupting him while he watched Netflix. Then Booker led the teen to the bathtub where he collapsed and was left unconscious for a couple of hours, the sources say.

Booker is being held without bail at Rikers Island, the law enforcement sources said Saturday. Contact information for his attorney was not immediately known.

Copyright NBC New York
Contact Us