A man on Tuesday finally pleaded guilty to fatally shooting his girlfriend in Brooklyn in 2005 — putting to rest a case that went cold for more than a decade despite his bizarre behavior at the scene.
Julius Esquilin, 37, copped to a manslaughter charge before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun for killing Desiree Cofield 15 years ago while the couple’s 3-year-old daughter and 4-year-old nephew looked on.
Chun promised that he would give Esquilin a 15-year prison term followed by five years of supervised release when he returns on April 8 for sentencing.
The case had sat dormant for 13 years until prosecutors thoroughly re-investigated the case and nabbed Esquilin in 2018 — despite the fact that he stayed at the crime scene and acted erratically when police arrived.
Esquilin even left a bizarre note, reading: “Even if I am gone I still love all of my daughters and my big mouth baby mother,” and signed “Julius.”
On Feb. 19, 2005, Esquilin and Cofield were spotted arguing out in front of their apartment building at 642 Green Ave.
A neighbor said they kept the row going as they went to their top-floor unit — and that a gunshot could be heard once the couple got inside, according to prosecutors.
“Mommy! Mommy!” the couple’s daughter cried out after the gunshot, the neighbor told police.
After first responders arrived, Esquilin shattered picture frames from around the apartment and tried to throw himself on Cofield’s body.
Cofield was found with a single gunshot wound to the head.
Esquilin, who already had a long rap sheet prior to the shooting, told police that a mystery gunman had come to the couple’s apartment to kill him but that they ended up clipping Cofield instead.
“I didn’t want to hurt her. I loved her,” he told police.
But he wasn’t busted for another 13 years, until the NYPD’s Cold Case Squad and the Brooklyn DA’s office revived the probe.
“The violence this defendant inflicted claimed the life of a young woman and forever altered the lives of her two children who have grown up without a mother,” Brooklyn DA Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “It was important to me to create a Cold Case Unit to bring overdue answers to families like this, who now know what happened to their loved one and hopefully have a degree of closure that justice has been served.”
