126 West 83rd Street (Google Maps)
A man charged with the murder of an Upper West Side elderly woman died Monday after suffering a seizure in a Manhattan Criminal Courthouse holding cell.
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Terrence Moore was facing charges for the January 2023 murder of 74-year-old Maria Hernandez at her UWS apartment at 126 West 83rd Street (between Columbus and Amsterdam avenues). The 55-year-old was being held at Rikers Island but was in the courthouse for a hearing when the seizure occurred. Moore’s lawyer, Glenn Hardy, said he had not been made aware of any underlying health issues Moore had in his two years of working with him.
The 2023 murder of Hernandez was shocking. She was found unconscious, bound and gagged underneath a pile of clothes in her apartment, which reports said had been ransacked. Hernandez, who also suffered fractures and bruising, was discovered by her sister, Maria Terrero, who lived in the same apartment building. Terrero said at the time she thought the assailants had been looking for someone other than her sister. “She never ever ever had [any problems with anyone],” she told the NY Post.
Moore and a suspected accomplice, Lashawn Mackey, were arrested within a week of the murder. Both were indicted in early 2024, with Moore facing charges for Murder in the Second Degree, Aggravated Sexual Abuse, Robbery and two counts of Burglary.
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Moore had served 27 years in jail stemming from another case where he was convicted for Second Degree Murder. He was released in 2017 and was on parole for the rest of his life before the Hernandez murder.
Moore is the second Rikers Island inmate to pass away this year. Last week, 38-year-old Ramal Powell died while awaiting trial for allegedly slashing a stranger with a boxcutter on the Lower East Side.
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Good Riddance