BROOKLYN — A 23-year-old man was found guilty of murder for fatally beating a fellow patient in the shower in the psychiatric ward at Interfaith Medical Center, prosecutors said.
Spence Andrews, of Bedford-Stuyvesant, was convicted of the March 2013 incident Thursday, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office.
He repeatedly struck 47-year-old Conrad Delimar in the head and face while the victim was taking a shower at the Atlantic Avenue hospital, then tied a towel around Delimar’s neck, officials said.
Delimar suffered blunt force trauma to the head and bleeding in his brain and died of his injuries, court records show.
Andrews had been admitted to Interfaith for psychiatric evaluation a day before the attack because his grandmother had grown concerned that he was acting erratically and called 911, according to officials and trial testimony.
On March 19, 2013, a nurse saw Andrews standing by a pay phone while soaking wet, prosecutors said, and he alleged that Delimar had groped him in the shower.
After investigating, the nurse found Delimar in a pool of his own blood on the bathroom floor.
“This defendant, who brutally beat and strangled to death a fellow patient, will now spend many years in prison for his sadistic acts,” Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson said in a statement.
Andrews is set to be sentenced on July 12 and faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Attorney information for Andrews was not immediately available.
