Staten Island man stabbed to death by new roommate for spending too much time in bathroom
A dispute between two new Staten Island roommates over bathroom access ended with one man dead and the other accused of murder after a botched cover-up attempt, police said Wednesday.
When the NYPD arrived at the pair’s apartment Tuesday morning, they found victim Justin Gaston, 37, naked from the waist down in the bathtub, with a stab wound to his sternum and a knife in his hand, police said.
Cops determined the “suicide” scene was staged, and roommate Raiquan Becheam soon confessed to the killing only a few weeks after the two men first arrived in the apartment used as a temporary shelter for the homeless, said a police source with knowledge of the case.
“They were particularly arguing over time Gaston spent in the bathroom,” the source said, adding the 37-year-old Becheam placed the corpse in the tub after the fatal stabbing in another room in their small apartment.
Cops called to the home on Jersey St. near Stanley Ave. in St. George found Gaston — wearing a shirt but no pants — sitting up dead in the bathtub about 8:20 a.m.
Becheam, under questioning, “spilled the beans” and admitted stabbing Gaston over their “living arrangements,” the police source said. The suspect also admitted posing the body in the bathtub to make it look like a suicide, the source said.
Cops arrested Becheam, charging him with murder and weapons possession. His arraignment in Staten Island Criminal Court was pending Wednesday.
Manuel Padilla, who runs a deli across the street from the home the men were sharing, described Becheam as a quiet man who would come in to buy chips and soda.
“He would come here every day, directly from across the street. He was quiet,” said Padilla. “Over there, it’s nothing but drugs and fighting.”
On Nov. 19, Becheam was arrested for punching and kicking an acquaintance in Brooklyn, court records show. A judge ordered him released without bail the next day.
At the time of his arrest, Becheam said he lived in Canarsie, Brooklyn. He was moved to the Staten Island shelter shortly after his arrest, cops said.
A neighbor, who did not wish to be named, said he recognized Becheam, but stayed clear of him.
“I don’t get involved in anything around here,” he said. “When I start hearing fighting, stuff like that, I just pray.”
