NEW YORK – A 32-year-old New York City man could face murder charges for allegedly killing his 15-year-old cousin after he was reportedly cut off by Netflix.
New York City Police noted that Jallen McConnell, 15, of Athens, Georgia, died in late June after he was found unconscious in the bathtub of an apartment at Wise Houses in W 94th Street. Parmedics transported the teenager to Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
According to police sources, the teenager 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’s death, police arrested Booker on charges of assault and endangering the well-being of a person with a physical disability.
The criminal charges could be updated following the city’s final medical examiner’s report on the Georgia teen’s death. Law enforcement officials said Friday that his death has been reclassified as a homicide.
Law enforcement sources say McConnell’s autopsy report detailed bruises and cuts all over the body. The criminal complaint against Booker says the Upper West Side resident confessed to hitting his cousin “at least fifty times” with a belt.
Booker originally claimed that his cousin collapsed in the bathtub on June 28 after returning home from a street fight.
Instead, sources say, the 32-year-old allegedly assaulted McConnell for interrupting him while he was watching Netflix. Booker then took the teen into the bathtub, where he collapsed and was left unconscious for a couple of hours, sources say.
Booker is being held without bail on Rikers Island, law enforcement sources said Saturday. Contact information for his attorney was not immediately known.
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