Queens man pleads guilty to cold-case slay of WWI vet missing since 1976

Protection Legal professional Russell Rothberg and Martin Motta converse at a bail listening to on Nov. 5, 2021.
Brigitte Stelzer

A Queens man pleaded responsible to manslaughter within the killing and dismemberment of a World Struggle I veteran greater than 45 years in the past.

Martin Motta, 75, entered a responsible plea Tuesday within the grotesque cold-case slaying of George Clarence Seitz, whose partial stays had been found within the yard of a Richmond Hill residence in March 2019, the Queens District Legal professional’s workplace introduced.

Prosecutors stated Motta fatally stabbed Seitz within the head after stealing roughly $7,000 to $8,000 from him in 1976.

Seitz’s physique had been dismembered on the neck, shoulders and hips, based on the Queens DA’s workplace.

Investigators spent two years working to determine the skeletal stays — a pelvis and partial torso — that had been buried underneath concrete earlier than they had been capable of positively determine Seitz as a match by DNA assessments with the assistance of the FBI.

George Clarence Seitz went lacking on Dec. 10, 1976.

Queens DA

“This long-cold case marks the primary profitable software in New York Metropolis of forensic genetic family tree,” Queens District Legal professional Melinda Katz stated. “Irrespective of how a lot time has handed, we'll use each device at our disposal to realize justice.”

Seitz, who was 81 on the time of his dying, had gone lacking on the morning of Dec. 10, 1976.

George Clarence Seitz’s stays, consisting of a pelvis and partial torso, are dug up.

Queens DA

He was final seen leaving his residence in Jamaica, Queens to go get a haircut. Investigators realized that Seitz was an everyday buyer of Motta on the barbershop and linked him to the homicide by witness interviews and file searches throughout 5 states, based on the Queens DA.

Motta, of Jamaica, is anticipated to be given 20 years in jail at his sentencing on Nov. 7, based on the Queens DA.

“For the grotesque homicide of a World Struggle I veteran, the defendant eluded arrest for greater than 46 years,” Katz stated.  “Now he's headed to jail because of the collaboration between the NYPD and our Chilly Case Unit.”