A Prospect-Lefferts Garden man will spend 19 years behind bars for fatally slitting his ex-girlfriend’s throat, before reportedly attempting suicide.
Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Abena Darkeh passed down the hefty sentence to 63-year-old Romeo Borneo, who had pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter charges last month for killing 47-year-old Erica Renaud.
“With today’s sentence, the defendant has been held responsible for the vicious and deadly stabbing of an innocent woman and mother,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “Today’s lengthy prison sentence is a step toward justice for the victim’s family and friends.”
According to prosecutors, Borneo called police to 25 Lefferts Ave., where both he and the victim reportedly lived, saying that he had been injured during a fight with his former girlfriend, whom he had recently separated from.
When cops arrived on the scene, they found Borneo with cut marks on his wrist, which authorities later said were self-inflicted in an apparent suicide attempt.
As they continued searching the apartment, they made the horrifying discovery of Renaud’s body, laying dormant under a pile of blood-stained bedding and pillows on the living room floor, according to the DA’s office.
Investigators later recovered a broken knife from the garbage, covered in what appeared to be blood stains.
After assessing the scene and questioning the suspect, authorities charged Borneo with manslaughter, alleging that he had plunged the knife into Renaud’s neck, causing her to bleed out.
Borneo will spend nearly two decades in prison, and be subject to five years of post-release supervision.
Renaud had been a member of the steel pan musical organization “The Business of Pan” along with her daughter — and members of the group remembered her infectious personality and kindred spirit.
“Erica Renaud was a beautiful person, with an amazing spirit, that was taken away from us way too soon,” the group said during a tribute.
