Bronx drug dealer busted in alleged abandonment of infant son, slay of girlfriend 23 years ago
A murder suspect who vanished after allegedly killing his 22-year-old girlfriend more than two decades ago also abandoned his son — a baby boy who was sleeping in a crib just paces from where his mother was fatally shot, law enforcement sources said Friday.
Bronx drug dealer Michael Stewart, 56, arrested Thursday in Connecticut, left everything behind after he shot Sofia Blair in the head inside their Creston Ave. apartment in Fordham Heights on Sept. 20, 1993, sources said.
“They had a young baby together and the baby was in a crib nearby when the killing took place,” a source with knowledge of the case said Friday.
After racking up several marijuana arrests, including one that would land him in prison for years, Stewart wanted to leave the country and head back to his native Jamaica, police sources said.
He killed Blair after she wouldn’t leave with him — pumping a bullet from a .380-caliber pistol into the right side of her head, according to court papers.
After killing Blair, Stewart called his girlfriend’s father, telling him, “Your daughter is in the house, alone, with the baby in the crib,” police sources said.
Stewart then flew to Jamaica — about 2,500 miles from New York City.
He quickly became the 46th Precinct detective squad’s prime suspect in Blair’s murder, especially after her family said the two had a violent relationship, according to police sources.
But Stewart had already fled the country, cops said.
After about two decades, Stewart returned to the U.S., settling in Hartford, Conn., under the name Kenneth Hall, officials said.
But it didn’t take long for Stewart to pop up on the NYPD’s radar.
In 2014 — 21 years after Blair’s murder — Bronx detectives learned that Stewart had come back to the U.S. with a fake passport.
They worked with the State Department to get his passport information, but by then, Stewart was already back in jail under his new name, implicated in an identity theft scam, sources said.
NYPD detectives interviewed Stewart in a Connecticut prison, where he made several incriminating statements about Blair’s death, police sources said.
In June, a Bronx grand jury indicted Stewart on murder, manslaughter and weapons possession charges. He was taken to Bronx court and arraigned on the indictment Thursday night, where a judge ordered him held without bail.
Stewart spent his Friday in a Rikers Island jail cell — 11 miles from where he killed Blair, officials said.
Attempts to reach Blair’s family were unsuccessful Friday.
He really had the nerve to return to the US. His son must hate the very thought of him, ole wicked
morning miss met, him brazen bad. Long run short ketch. That poor son.
You cannot escape the American judicial system ole killer boy!
Kill the woman run whay 23 years return bingo him bright to eeh what with them wicked selfish dog ya kill thewoman because him sell him drugs going to prison and want the woman move back to Jamaica him a try mash up control the woman life and because of that him kill her hope dem double the time him a go get wicked manipulating f er