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Murder Trial Begins For Man Accused of Killing Office Cleaning Woman

By DNAinfo Staff on March 1, 2012 8:10pm

Suspect Joseph Pabon in homicide of cleaning woman Eridania Rodriguez leaves his lawyer's office at 2550 Victory Blvd.
Suspect Joseph Pabon in homicide of cleaning woman Eridania Rodriguez leaves his lawyer's office at 2550 Victory Blvd.
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Ken Murray/NY Daily News Archive via Getty Images

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Skin cells found under the fingernails of a murdered office cleaning woman clearly identify her killer, prosecutors said Thursday.

Eridania Rodriguez, 46, desperately fought back against Joseph Pabon, 27, a building handyman, as he allegedly suffocated her on the 12th floor of 2 Rector St. where she cleaned buildings at night, prosecutors said during opening arguments of Pabon's murder trial. He then allegedly stuffed her body into an air duct.

Describing the crime in graphic detail, prosecutors said Pabon grabbed Rodriguez on an empty floor of the building on July 7, 2009, and bound her hands with thick industrial duct tape before taping her mouth shut so tightly she suffocated,.

"Not only could she not scream for help, she could not breathe," Assistant District Attorney Christine Keenan said in opening statements. Rodriguez's body was found four days later stuffed into an air duct. 

Pabon's skin cells — matched to him by DNA tests — were discovered under the fingernails of Rodriguez who prosecutors say scratched her killer's torso, neck and arms as she desperately tried to save herself.

"In her last bold but futile attempts to fend off his attack, she repeatedly scratched and in doing so she identified her killer to all of you," Keenan told the jury.

Prosecutors did not identify a motive for the crime.

Pabon, of Staten Island, sat in court Thursday in a black suit, his short dark hair neatly gelled.

More than a dozen of Rodriguez's family members were present Thursday and wept during parts of the graphic proceeding. Rodriguez lived in Washington Heights with her husband and had two daughters and a son, all in their 20s.

Rodriguez' badly bruised body was found by police after an extensive four-day search, blood still dripping from the vent, prosecutors said. She was still wearing her cleaning uniform.

Meanwhile, surveillance video to be played in court was described by prosecutors as showing Pabon riding the freight elevator and changing his shirts several times around the time of Rodriguez's disappearance. At one point he was missing for 42 minutes. That's when prosecutors believe he murdered Rodriguez.

Pabon has denied the charges and told police he was working at the building the night of the murder, but left early because he'd "felt ill," according to court papers.

His attorney, Mario Gallucci, argued Thursday that the behavior that jurors will see in the footage, is "consistent" with what person who was ill would be doing.

"[His] behavior in this case does not equal murder," Gallucci said in a brief opening argument.

On the way out of court, Rodriguez's niece and goddaughter, who identified herself as Katherine, 24, said she and her family are hoping for a conviction and justice.

"I don't know how much more you need if there's DNA," she said. 

Testimony was expected to begin Friday morning with the accounts of crime scene police who responded.

The trial, that is expect to last one month, is before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley.

Pabon faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison if convicted.