Year In Review - Arrests Made, Sentences Handed Down In Murder Cases
/By Jano Tantongco
jtantongco@longislandergroup.com
Adam Saalfield, who was found guilty of killing 18-year-old Maggie Rosales in October 2014, is pictured during his arraignment in November 2014.
Two murderers were sentenced, and two other people were arrested and charged in connection with murder cases earlier this year.
In March, Sheldon Leftenant, a Huntington Station gang member, was handed down the maximum sentence of 55 years to life in prison for shooting, and nearly killing, Suffolk County Second Precinct Police Officer Mark Collins.
Leftenant was convicted by Jan. 26 and was sentenced by Supreme Court Justice John Collins to 40 years to life on the attempted murder charge, and to 15 years to life on the criminal possession of a weapon charge.
He is currently being held at the maximum-security Clinton Correctional Facility in upstate Dannemora.
Leftenant, 23, was an alleged member of the “Tip Top Boyz” gang, which police said was based out of Leftenant’s Tippin Drive home.
Adam Saalfield, the 23-year-old Huntington Station man found guilty of killing 18-year-old Maggie Rosales in October 2014, was handed down the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in August.
Saalfield’s two-week trial began Aug. 1 in Riverhead.
He was arrested Oct. 29, 2014 and charged with second-degree murder for the killing of Rosales, who also lived in Huntington Station, and who was a senior at Walt Whitman High School.
Rosales was found dead after her throat had been cut on Lynch Street just before midnight on Oct. 12, 2014.
He is being held at the maximum-security Sullivan Correctional Facility in Fallsburg, NY.
A convicted rapist from Huntington Station was arrested and arraigned in June in connection with the 2013 murder of Sarah Strobel, a Walt Whitman High School graduate.
Suffolk County Homicide Squad detectives charged Fernando Romualdo, 28, with second-degree murder. Romualdo pleaded not guilty.
He is next due to appear in court for conference on Jan. 19, 2017, according to court records.
Romualdo is currently serving time upstate at Mohawk Correctional Facility for a second degree rape conviction. According to the state’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision database, Romualdo is serving a maximum sentence of three years at Mohawk.
Denis Cullen Jr., 23, of Lloyd Harbor, was arrested and charged in connection with the Aug. 17 murder of his mother.
He pleaded not guilty two weeks later at his arraignment.
Police said he intentionally drowned his mother, 63-year-old Elizabeth Cullen, in the family pool at their White Hill Road home.
Judge Stephen Braslow remanded Denis Cullen Jr. to jail without bail. A psychiatric exam was also ordered.
He is next scheduled to appear in court for conference on Jan. 11, 2017, according to court records.
