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Man Beat and Suffocated Neighbor in Brooklyn SRO, Prosecutors Say

By Aidan Gardiner | April 23, 2013 10:39am
 David Barron, 44, was beaten to death inside a Nevins Street residential facility, called Stepping Stone, by a fellow tenant, prosecutors said.
David Barron, 44, was beaten to death inside a Nevins Street residential facility, called Stepping Stone, by a fellow tenant, prosecutors said.
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DNAinfo/Gustavo Solis

NEW YORK CITY — Cops arrested a man at a Brooklyn treatment residence after he brutally attacked and killed a neighbor there on Sunday, according to the NYPD.

Leonardo Martinez, 32, got into a dispute with 44-year-old David Barron inside 50 Nevins St. in Boerum Hill at 6 a.m. Sunday when Martinez punched Barron and put him in a choke hold, according to police and court documents.

Barron was rushed to Long Island College Hospital with severe head trauma and later pronounced dead, cops said.

Martinez was arrested Monday and arraigned in Brooklyn Criminal Court on charges of second-degree murder.

The Nevins Street facility, called the Stepping Stone, is a single-resident occupancy facility for those battling addiction and mental illnesses.

Staff declined to comment to reporters about the incident, but a spokesman for the Institute for Community Living, which runs Stepping Stone, said they are cooperating with authorities.

"We are saddened by this loss and we support the work of the investigators and we will help them in any way we can," ICL spokesman Ron Gold said Sunday.