Latest / Least of These / 239. “Murder by Parole” - The Case of Susan Leyden - Brooklyn, New York - [Part 3 FINAL]

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239. “Murder by Parole” - The Case of Susan Leyden - Brooklyn, New York - [Part 3 FINAL] · Least of These

0:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to least of these, where I cover the cases that need it most, because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
0:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host Leah D in today.
0:09
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be bringing you the case of Susan Layton in Brooklyn, New York.
0:13
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a mini series on the crimes of Harvey Marcellan.
0:16
[SPEAKER_01]: If you have no idea what I'm talking about, skip back to episodes, and then meet us right back here.
0:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And with that said, let's get right to it.
1:03
[SPEAKER_01]: On August 7th of 2019, Double Murderer Harvey Marcelin was released on Pearl after serving 35 years in prison for the murder of Anna Sierra.
1:13
[SPEAKER_01]: He was 81 years old at the time of his release.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as he was let out, things took an unexpected turn.
1:21
[SPEAKER_01]: The New York Times reported that when Harvey Marcelin was set free, he sought housing at a women's shelter in the Bronx.
1:28
[SPEAKER_01]: The outlet spoke to Annie Brennan, who was a nurse practitioner at the shelter in charge of intake.
1:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course Harvey Marcilen seeking to stay in a shelter for women left her with questions.
1:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, her and everybody else.
1:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyhow, any told the New York Times that Harvey Marcilen quote presented as a mild spoken, very tall black man.
1:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So she asked him straight up, well, why are you in the women's shelter?
1:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Marcilen told her that he now identified as a woman.
2:00
[SPEAKER_01]: This was news to Annie since the person sitting before her was clearly a man and a man with an extensive violent criminal record at that.
2:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Now Annie Brennan didn't think admitting a man, especially a man who had already killed two women, was a good fit for a shelter whose actual objective of courses to, you know, protect women, so Annie objected.
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: But despite her objections, her supervisors at the shelter approved Marcelin.
2:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Annie Brennan went on to tell the outlet, quote, apparently his feelings and identity were far more important than all of the other women that were terrified of him.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only did the supervisors at the women's shelter have no problem with Marsal and living there, apparently neither did his parole officer.
2:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So Harvey Marsalin was living at the women's shelter in the Bronx.
2:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And in 2019, so was 68-year-old Susan Layton.
2:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Susan had spent most of her life in Northern New Jersey.
2:58
[SPEAKER_01]: She was from Tina.
2:59
[SPEAKER_01]: She had one daughter and for a year she had run her own jewelry business there in Jersey.
3:04
[SPEAKER_01]: but unfortunately business slowed down, and somewhere around 2009 she moved to the city to live closer to her friends and have access to public transportation.
3:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan's life had been marked by tragedy, her marriage fell apart, her father, two brothers and her sister had all passed away.
3:22
[SPEAKER_01]: She was diagnosed with cancer.
3:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a lot for any one person to handle and Susan sought out resources.
3:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's reported that Susan lived in Queens, the Bronx, Brooklyn, and then according to the New York Post, at some point she became a strange from her daughter, and ultimately ended up at a housing community for seniors in Fort Green.
3:44
[SPEAKER_01]: But according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office in 2019, both Susan Layton and Harvey Marselen were living at that women's shelter in the Bronx.
3:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And it sure appears that's where their paths first cross.
3:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Marcelin was released in August of 2019, moved into the shelter and by December of that same year, the New York Times reported that a Facebook page in Harvey, Marcelin's name was created.
4:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Only it wasn't Harvey, Marcelin, but Marcelin Harvey, he just listed his last name first and his first name last.
4:16
[SPEAKER_01]: On the page of Photo of Susan Layton was posted with a caption,
4:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Over the next three years, several more pages were created in the name Marcelin Harvey, and all of the photos.
4:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm talking all of the profile photos, cover photos, and every public photo posted were photos of Susan Layden.
4:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It appeared they had been swipe from Susan's actual social media and posted the Marcelins.
4:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And while Harvey Marslin was creating Facebook pages devoted to Susan, the New York Daily News reported that Susan Layton's friends and family knew nothing about Marslin or his relationship with Susan.
4:53
[SPEAKER_01]: They'd never met him and many of them didn't even know he existed.
4:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And, at press release, the Brooklyn D.A.
4:59
[SPEAKER_01]: would state the nature of the relationship between Susan and Harvey was unclear, though the pair had known each other for several years.
5:06
[SPEAKER_01]: While the exact nature of the relationship between the two of them might have been unclear, it was crystal clear that Harvey Marselen had developed some sort of obsession with Susan Layden, and it all started immediately after he was let out on parole.
5:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, Susan Layden went missing.
5:24
[SPEAKER_01]: The New York Daily News reported that friends of Susan's went to police and asked for a well-fair check on March 2, 2022 after Susan failed to show up to a friend's house on February 28.
5:37
[SPEAKER_01]: They had been expecting her, but she never made it there and no one had heard from her since.
5:42
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the NYPD, this friend had spoke to her sometimes shortly before the 28, and she had said that she wasn't feeling well, so they were concerned.
5:51
[SPEAKER_01]: In addition to being a cancer survivor, Susan suffered from high blood pressure and liver disease.
5:57
[SPEAKER_01]: This friend thought it was possible that Susan had suffered some type of medical emergency, so police showed up at Susan's residence in Fort Green, but Susan wasn't there.
6:31
[SPEAKER_01]: The New York Times reported that in the early morning hours of March 3, 2022, a man named Ramon Lopez was writing his e-bike down the street on the way home after a night out when he noticed a large, wield multicolored bag that had been left abandoned at Pennsylvania and Atlantic avenues.
6:49
[SPEAKER_01]: The bag stood out to him because he had seen it on his way out that night.
6:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Ours had passed and the bag remained abandoned there on the street.
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: So Ramon decided he'd take it with him.
6:59
[SPEAKER_01]: He started pushing it, but then decided he should take a look inside.
7:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He assumed it was just trash, but thought he should check anyway.
7:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Nothing could have prepared Ramon for what he saw when he opened the gray and black bag.
7:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Inside, Ramon found a black plastic bag, and inside that bag, he discovered the torso of a woman.
7:21
[SPEAKER_01]: He, of course, notified police, and investigators were there in a matter of minutes.
7:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Police would later tell the press that the torso was that of an adult woman, believed to be either white or Hispanic.
7:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They went on to say that the body didn't appear to be decomposed and that there were no shooting or stab wounds.
7:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators were asking for the public's assistance because they needed to know who this woman was, and they had little to go on.
7:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Of the remains that had been recovered, there were no identifiable marks or tattoos.
7:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Police revealed that they had searched nearby areas, but didn't find any more of this woman's remains.
8:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So they were asking anyone with any information to come forward, and at the same time, canvassing all the cameras on Atlantic Avenue.
8:09
[SPEAKER_01]: They were hopeful that a camera somewhere in the area had captured video of the person who had abandoned that bag.
8:15
[SPEAKER_01]: At the time of the press conference, they had turned up nothing, but it wouldn't be long before they'd find a treasure trove of evidence.
8:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Authorities continued to sit through surveillance videos, and being go, they got a huge break.
8:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Surveillance video reportedly from a nearby business showed you guessed it, now 83-year-old Harvey Marcelin wheeling that shopping bag and abandoning it at Pennsylvania Atlantic.
8:41
[SPEAKER_01]: That led investigators straight to Marcelin's East New York apartment, and inside police walks straight into a horror scene.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators found a human head, thighs, a hand, and an arm all stuffed into plastic garbage bags.
8:57
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a box from an electric saw cleaning supplies, a hammer, a bloody mop, and a tub full of towels.
9:05
[SPEAKER_01]: On March 4th, 2022, Harvey Marcelin was arrested initially on concealment of a human courts.
9:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Those charges would later be upgraded to second-degree murder and criminal tampering, and then upgraded again to first-degree murder once the DA in Brooklyn learned of Marcelin's conviction in Jacqueline Bond's case.
9:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Before we move on, I just want to say that Anna Laura Sierra's case was not mentioned in any of the releases from the District Attorney's Office.
9:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure why, but it seems pretty important that Marcelin had been convicted of two entire murders, but for whatever reason it wasn't in there.
9:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Back to the story.
9:45
[SPEAKER_01]: At the time of his arrest, Marcelin identified himself as a woman, telling investigators
9:54
[SPEAKER_01]: However, by the time trial rolled around, he'd be asking the court to call him Mr. Harvey again.
10:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Multiple news outlets, I'm looking at you New York Times, as well as the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office referred to this monster as Mrs. Marcellin, citing his own claims that he was a transgender woman.
10:14
[SPEAKER_01]: But I'm not going to play those games.
10:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Seems to me like Harvey Marcellin switched up his first and last name and claimed he was a woman
10:24
[SPEAKER_01]: all of the women at that shelter were placed in harm's way, and now one of them was dead.
10:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And for what?
10:31
[SPEAKER_01]: To protect this monster's feelings, his delusions?
10:36
[SPEAKER_01]: He had lied and manipulated to prey on women, and after killing a third, the Brooklyn DA, the police chief, and the media bent all over themselves to make sure his delusions were
10:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcilen was held without Baylett-Riker's island, he entered a plea of not guilty.
11:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators got to work, and the evidence they uncovered was equally overwhelming and disturbing.
11:07
[SPEAKER_01]: There was so much surveillance footage.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Surveillance footage at Marcilen's apartment captured 68-year-old Susan Layton walking into the apartment with that shopping bag on wheels on February 27th.
11:20
[SPEAKER_01]: She was never seen leaving the apartment alive.
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Picks 11 reported that two days later on March 1, Marcelin and an unidentified woman went into the Home Depot in Manhattan and purchased the electric saw, garbage bags and cleaning supplies.
11:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcelin was also captured on surveillance driving his motorized scooter around a 99 cent store in Queens.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And while he was riding through the 99 cent store, he was sitting on the severed leg of his victim.
11:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The leg was wrapped in black plastic.
11:54
[SPEAKER_01]: People were walking by and Harvey Marshall and was casually riding around the store with a body part of his victims before he discarded it in his neighborhood.
12:02
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't seem nervous or stressed.
12:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He was just riding around shopping in the store.
12:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Marcelin was also seen on video leaving his apartment on March 2 with the same rolling bag Susan had brought over.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: At this point as we know, it contained her torso.
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: The bag was gray and black.
12:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course we know that Susan's torso was recovered in the early morning hours of March 3, but where were the rest of her remains?
12:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Several days later in the midst of the investigation, police found more body parts.
12:36
[SPEAKER_01]: On March 7, Susan's leg was found in a pile of trash near Jamaica Avenue, just a few blocks away from Marcellan's apartment.
12:44
[SPEAKER_01]: New York Daily News reported that the severed leg was found inside an abandoned tire with other trash thrown about.
12:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Police scoured the area.
12:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything likely happened right there in a small radius.
12:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Probably about as far away as Marcelin's motorized scooter could go.
13:02
[SPEAKER_01]: The police presence in the details of the horrific nature of the case left residents living nearby fearful.
13:08
[SPEAKER_01]: ABC7 New York spoke to Cynthia and men as who live nearby.
13:12
[SPEAKER_01]: She said, they say New York is a dream, an American dream, but I don't feel safe.
13:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I just want to like make this place safer.
13:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marslin was officially indicted by a grand jury on first-degree murder charges.
13:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez held a press conference detailing Marcelan's indictment as well as revealing some of the evidence recovered in the case.
13:37
[SPEAKER_01]: In the press release, Gonzalez said, last week, my office charged Harvey Marcelan with allegedly concealing the severed head of a woman in her home and discarding the victim's torso and a bag on the street.
13:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Today, the grand jury indicted Harvey Marcelan for murder, and my office is committed to vigorously seeking justice.
13:56
[SPEAKER_01]: The facts of this horrific case are gruesome and unsettling, and my heart is with the victim's family and friends.
14:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Authorities also release a surveillance video of Harvey Marcelin writing his motorized scooter, sitting on human remains at the 99st store, and in that press conference officials referred to Marcelin as a serial killer.
14:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators revealed that they were trying to determine if there were even more victims out there.
14:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey, sure wasn't going to tell investigators if there were.
14:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't cooperating with police.
14:29
[SPEAKER_01]: He had loyered up immediately after his arrest and refused to say anything about Susan's murder.
14:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So he wouldn't talk to the cops, but he was willing to talk to the press.
14:40
[SPEAKER_01]: an April of 2022 after roughly a month at Rikers, Marshall and Saddam with a reporter from the New York Post.
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: The interview lasted 55 minutes and was deeply unsettling.
14:55
[SPEAKER_01]: From behind a glass wall, Marceline explained that he had two identities, a man named Harvey Marceline, and a lesbian named Marceline Harvey.
15:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He stated, Harvey's not a good guy, he's a tough guy.
15:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Marceline's nice and gentle and loving, you know lots of laughter, fun to be with, she's the one who's perfectly normal.
15:15
[SPEAKER_01]: He went on to say that he preferred Marceline, but then laughed when he was asked about Harvey.
15:20
[SPEAKER_01]: He stated, he's a pimp, you like him, don't you?
15:25
[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, he suggested the post reporter go with him on a date to Anton's wine bar downtown.
15:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That is, if he could beat his murder charge.
15:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no thanks.
15:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And when asked about Susan Layton, Marcelim claimed that he'd met Susan and Tom can square park in the East Village, and that Susan was among his quote, Coven of Women.
15:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed he was ruling the whole park.
15:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Marcelim stated, it got to the point where I was ruling the park, a lot of women claimed ownership of me.
15:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I was the queen.
15:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a very magical park, you know.
15:59
[SPEAKER_01]: When the New York Post asked about his past convictions, Marcel and explained that those murders will, of course, they were all the victims of all.
16:07
[SPEAKER_01]: His past girlfriends took advantage and disrespected him.
16:11
[SPEAKER_01]: He said, there's a point where they want to rule me and they take advantage of my softness.
16:16
[SPEAKER_01]: They misinterpret it.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: They start hand-packing me.
16:19
[SPEAKER_01]: He then went on to discuss his rage, telling the reporter that his feminine side helps keep a lid on Harvey sometimes, but he is easily provoked in violence, especially by his female friends.
16:32
[SPEAKER_01]: He stated, I tell them there's a side of me you don't want to see, but they don't listen.
16:38
[SPEAKER_01]: He revealed that he had to choke down rage when women challenged his manliness.
16:43
[SPEAKER_01]: the reporter asked what it felt like to erupt in rage.
16:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcilen said, well, sometimes it's liberating, you know, you get all that dirt out, you know the pin-up stress, you can let your macho side come out.
16:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It isn't what you want to come out though.
16:59
[SPEAKER_01]: You're covering it up by being a woman because you don't like this male with this male rage, you don't want that person loose.
17:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Marceline admitted to the post that he did kill both Jackwelline bonds and Analora Sierra, but insisted he hadn't murdered Susan, stating, I'm being framed because of my rap sheet.
17:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Couldn't be the fact that he was caught on surveillance video sitting on a leg, nope.
17:24
[SPEAKER_01]: As we know Harvey Marceline is always the damn victim, and he wasted no time taking advantage of his opportunity to spend a story and set the stage for his defense.
17:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Marceline went on to say that Susan was one of three women who occasionally slept at his apartment.
17:41
[SPEAKER_01]: One of those women was named Gillian and she was cooperating with police, whatever that meant.
17:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But the other woman, a woman he refused to name was the one that had actually murdered Susan because she was jealous of her.
17:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And y'all know he couldn't end an interview without disparaging the victim.
17:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He told the post that while it was too bad Susan Layton was dead, he didn't like the way the media was portraying her, stating she wasn't no mother Teresa.
18:08
[SPEAKER_01]: They make her look like a saint, like a sweet little darling.
18:12
[SPEAKER_01]: All this come in from the man who had murdered her.
18:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only did Marslin make sure he took time to blame the victim, he couldn't in the interview without bitching about something.
18:22
[SPEAKER_01]: This time it wasn't a sexist parole board, but his attorneys and the food at Rikers.
18:28
[SPEAKER_01]: He wanted the world to know he needed a better lawyer, and of course, some good food.
18:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marshall and said, the food is nothing.
18:36
[SPEAKER_01]: You get these half cooked slice potatoes.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know where they get the bread in the little pad of butter in this questionable dietary jelly that's probably donated from a potter's field somewhere.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan Layton was dead.
18:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Hacked a piece as in a stone about a mung trash.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But this ass hat wanted the world to know that the butter at Ryker's just ain't good enough for him.
19:06
[UNKNOWN]: Thanks for watching!
19:23
[SPEAKER_01]: As the details surrounding Harvey Marcilen's crimes began to hit the national stage, there was outrage.
19:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Outrage that a twice convicted murder had been released to kill a third time, and as well there should have been.
19:35
[SPEAKER_01]: When the New York Department of Corrections was asked how in the fresh hell Harvey Marcilen had been released from prison after not one, but two murders.
19:44
[SPEAKER_01]: A spokesman told the press that Harvey Marcilen had completed therapy in coursework and had
19:53
[SPEAKER_01]: and that the prison had deemed him unlikely to commit a violent offense.
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, how wrong they were.
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcilen had a clear pattern, violent outburst of rage, violence against women, and when the shit did hit the fan, he'd blame everyone else, never take accountability.
20:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the rats, it was the squirrels, or it was all the victims fault.
20:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Clearly, the therapy and coursework had done absolutely nothing, because that pattern was never broken.
20:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Marcelin wouldn't take accountability for Susan's murder either.
20:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He maintained his innocence and the case was off to trial.
20:32
[SPEAKER_01]: As we know, hack the court battle is fought in pre-trial motions as the prosecution defends, fight for their evidence to make it in front of the jury.
20:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And in this case, the prosecution was dealt a devastating blow.
20:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Judge Danny Chun decided the jury wouldn't hear anything about the two previous murders.
20:50
[SPEAKER_01]: His reasons?
20:51
[SPEAKER_01]: When it came to Jacqueline Bonds, Judge Chun said the murder had happened so long ago, it would only prejudiced the jury.
20:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And when it came to Analora Sierra, the jury could hear all about it, but only if Harvey Marshall and took the stand.
21:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Spoiler alert, he never testified.
21:09
[SPEAKER_01]: The jury wouldn't hear about the convictions or allegations of rape either.
21:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcilen was a rapist and a serial killer.
21:17
[SPEAKER_01]: But the jury wouldn't be told any of that.
21:21
[SPEAKER_01]: The trial began on April 20th of 2026.
21:26
[SPEAKER_01]: While the evidence against Marcellan and Susan's case was strong, some might even stay overwhelming.
21:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcellan was now an 87-year-old man in a wheelchair.
21:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Would the jury believe this frail old man sitting before them was capable of such a violent act?
21:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Or would they believe the state star witness, the woman captured on surveillance video with Marsella at the Home Depot and Manhattan while they purchased the electric saw garbage bags and cleaning supplies?
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, would they believe she was the one who in murdered Susan Layton?
21:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Remember that defense Marsella was setting up in that interview with a New York post?
22:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Marsella in through his defense team would try to pin the murder on this woman, another
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: She was Marcilen's friend and the prosecutions witness.
22:16
[SPEAKER_01]: She'd been in that apartment around the time of the murder.
22:20
[SPEAKER_01]: The case would boil down to whether the jury believed the state star witnessed Lisa Lindell, or the story woven by the defense, and that was evident in opening statements.
22:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Assistant District Attorney Vivian Dusk painted a disturbing picture as she detailed Susan Layton's final moments.
22:38
[SPEAKER_01]: She sat in part.
22:39
[SPEAKER_01]: On February 27, 2022, Susan Layton went over to the defendant's apartment at 50 Pennsylvania Avenue carrying her gray and black rolling bag with her, there to see her friend.
22:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan Layton walked into that building, not knowing she would never walk out again.
22:57
[SPEAKER_01]: the prosecutor continued on, looks can be deceiving.
23:01
[SPEAKER_01]: It can be hard to fathom that at age 83 this defendant killed Susan Layden.
23:06
[SPEAKER_01]: He decapitated her and cut her limb from limb.
23:10
[SPEAKER_01]: She went on to detail just how many times Marslin was captured on surveillance throughout the crime.
23:16
[SPEAKER_01]: He was seen at the Home Depot, additional surveillance footage showed Marslin in his building's laundry room, cleaning a kitchen mat that appeared to have been stained with blood,
23:26
[SPEAKER_01]: He was captured the 99 cent store with Susan separate leg, and of course when police executed a search warrant at Marcelin's apartment, there was blood everywhere, and Susan's head and other body parts were found in the bathroom.
23:40
[SPEAKER_01]: The prosecutor revealed that the jury would hear from a witness that had been in the apartment and seen Susan's body and Harvey's bathtub, the woman from Home Depot, Lisa Lindahl.
23:55
[SPEAKER_01]: But when defense attorney Ellison stocking gave her opening statements, she told a home another story.
24:02
[SPEAKER_01]: For all the evidence the state did have, prosecutors couldn't prove her client had killed Susan.
24:07
[SPEAKER_01]: They couldn't even prove how or when she was killed.
24:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Lisa Lendall was also in the apartment later that night.
24:15
[SPEAKER_01]: She was with Marcellin as he bought the saw and the cleaning supplies at Home Depot.
24:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Ellis and stalking told the jury that there was DNA from a person other than Susan or Marsellin, it was found on a hammer and under Susan Latins fingernails.
24:33
[SPEAKER_01]: But the NYPD never tested that DNA against Lisa Lendolves.
24:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Was it Lisa's DNA under Susan's fingernails?
24:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Why hadn't the state tested the DNA?
24:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And why had Lisa Lendol willingly went to Home Depot with Marsellin to buy the saw if she
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: The defense tried to paint Lisa as a murderer and a liar.
24:56
[SPEAKER_01]: The attorney stated, she lied, she was desperate and now instead of being charged with murder, Lisa Lindahl is the prosecution's star witness against Mr. Harvey.
25:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But Lisa Lindahl certainly wasn't the state's only witness.
25:10
[SPEAKER_01]: The prosecution paraded in a whole line of them, starting with the man who had found Susan's torso.
25:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Ramon Lopez told the jury all about the gray and black bag and how he'd stumbled across it after a night out.
25:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators took the stand one by one, and the jury was shown all the surveillance video.
25:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan walking into the apartment that night, Harvey walking out, the footage from Home Depot, the video from the 99 sense store, and the bloody photos from the crime scene.
25:40
[SPEAKER_01]: The medical examiner told the jury that though a cause of death was difficult the piece together due to the condition of the body, Susan Layton had died from blunt force trauma to the head, as well as other injuries.
25:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It was revealed that not all of her remains had been recovered.
25:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators never found her right leg or left arm in hand.
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: The testimony was damning to say the very least, and then Lisa Lindahl took the stand.
26:08
[SPEAKER_01]: New Jersey News 12 reported that Lindahl was on the stand for hours.
26:13
[SPEAKER_01]: She told the jury that the time of Susan's murder she was homeless and addicted to heroin.
26:18
[SPEAKER_01]: She had met Harvey Marselin and a park in Manhattan, and at the time of the murder, Harvey had invited her back to his apartment to stay the night and get out of the cold.
26:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Together, the two did copious amounts of heroin.
26:31
[SPEAKER_01]: To Lisa's knowledge, she and Harvey were the only to in the apartment that night.
26:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But the following morning, she went into the bathroom and saw Susan Layton's body.
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, she was terrified.
26:43
[SPEAKER_01]: If Marcelin had murdered Susan, he was capable of killing her as well.
26:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Lisa recalled that she was in shock.
26:51
[SPEAKER_01]: She admitted that she did help Harvey clean some of the blood inside and outside of the apartment, and that it was in fact her captured on surveillance video inside the Home Depot when Marcelin bought the cleaning supplies in Saul.
27:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Lisa also admitted that Harvey had left her alone in the apartment with Susan's body, but she claimed she was too overwhelmed to call police or to do anything about it.
27:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Not only was she in shock, but she was heavily under the influence of drugs at the time.
27:19
[SPEAKER_01]: On cross, the defense press Lisa about not leaving or just calling the police, and the attorney's claim, Lisa had actually helped Harvey choose the items he purchased at Home Depot.
27:30
[SPEAKER_01]: The defense told the jury that Lisa Lindall was far more involved in Susan Latins' murder than she was willing to admit, and that since she had been in the apartment in between the time Susan arrived on February 27th, and the discovery of Susan remains on March 3rd, Harvey Marshall and couldn't be convicted of murder, because the state hadn't proven he was the one who had killed Susan.
27:53
[SPEAKER_01]: But that, of course, would be for the jury to decide, and decide they did, that Brooklyn jury decided quickly.
28:01
[SPEAKER_01]: After only about an hour of deliberations, and that jury was back with their verdict.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Harvey Marcilen was found guilty of first-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and concealment of a human corpse.
28:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And with that, a serial killer was finally taken off the street.
28:19
[SPEAKER_01]: On June 10th, 2026, Harvey Marcelin was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
28:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 87 years old.
28:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's all join together in hoping that this time, a life sentence really does mean a life sentence.
28:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we've been here a couple times before now, haven't we?
28:41
[SPEAKER_01]: According to prosecutors at the time of her murder, 68-year-old Susan Layton was trying to get her life back on track.
28:48
[SPEAKER_01]: She'd been through a lot, cancer, the loss of her father, her two brothers who were 21 and 25 years old, and the loss of her business.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: She was down on her luck and struggling, but fighting to overcome it all once again.
29:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite everything she'd been through, her friends described her as a survivor, and a happy person who enjoyed helping people.
29:09
[SPEAKER_01]: She would help anyone who needed it.
29:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan Laden was born on December 18 in Yonkers, New York.
29:16
[SPEAKER_01]: When she was too, her family moved
29:20
[SPEAKER_01]: She graduated high school in 1972 and attended Dame's Business School in Denver, Colorado.
29:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan loved fashion and followed in her father's footsteps beginning her career in New York City's garment district.
29:33
[SPEAKER_01]: She had worked hard to build a jewelry business that became very successful.
29:38
[SPEAKER_01]: She was a single mother to her only daughter Nicole.
29:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan was remembered as funny with a vivacious energy that lit up a room.
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Her friends recalled that any time you were with her, there was always something to laugh about.
29:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And that my friends is all I've got for this week.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to join me next Thursday for an all new episode.
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: And the meantime you can find me on Instagram at least under score of these, or my Facebook at least of these podcasts.
30:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're sick of ad interruptions,
30:10
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30:15
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30:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Head on over to patreon.com slash least of these to support the show today.
30:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening.
30:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for caring.
30:30
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know something, say something.
30:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And until next time, be good to each other.
31:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It's always the people who have been through it who are the most kind in generous.
31:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Susan Layton had survived more loss than any one person should ever experience, but she was still kind.
31:28
[SPEAKER_01]: She didn't have much to give, but she gave all that she could.
31:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And then this piece of shit comes along.
31:34
[SPEAKER_01]: He should have been in prison if not after the first murder, then for real after the second.
31:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Like this isn't baseball.
31:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not three strikes and then you're out at 87 years old.
31:47
[SPEAKER_01]: it's disgusting and disturbing but I don't have to tell you that.
31:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I think anyone with an ounce of common sense knows you don't let a double murder out of prison to see if they'll do it again.
31:56
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess everyone that is except for that parole board.
32:01
[SPEAKER_01]: He was so brazen with it too, like writing around in the 99th sense store.
32:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I get it.
32:07
[SPEAKER_01]: You see some weird stuff at the 99th sense store.
32:10
[SPEAKER_01]: But never in all my years have I seen a murderer writing around on a body part.
32:15
[SPEAKER_00]: That's crazy friend, that is crazy.
32:20
[SPEAKER_01]: There is one more thing I want to talk about, and that's that unknown DNA, the defense attorneys brought up on the hammer and underneath Susan's fingernails.
32:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I get so annoyed when the defense brings up the fact that the state didn't test an item of evidence, because you know, the defense has access to the discovery and they're capable of testing evidence also.
32:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So if they were so worried about that DNA,
32:46
[SPEAKER_01]: In my opinion, they didn't test it because they knew it was really nothing.
32:49
[SPEAKER_01]: But if they could leave the jury with the unknown, like who's DNA is on this hammer?
32:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe they'd planned enough doubt in the mind of one juror.
32:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's pretty obvious, I guess.
33:00
[SPEAKER_01]: But it makes me want to scream, and we see it so many times in so many other cases.
33:05
[SPEAKER_01]: The state never tested this or the state never tested that, and all the while the defense easily could have tested it, but chose not to.
33:13
[SPEAKER_01]: and then they scream about untested evidence.
33:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It just really gets my go.
33:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's about all I've got to say about that.
33:20
[SPEAKER_01]: You all know I love you more in my luggage and I can't wait to talk at you next week, but until then, bye-bye-bye.