Boyfriend Charged In Fatal Stabbing Of College Student

April 10, 2011 11:59 PM

Raul Barrera, 34, was arrested and charged with the stabbing murder of girlfriend Sarah Coit. (file/credit: CBS 2)

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NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A 33-year-old man has been arrested in the stabbing death of his girlfriend inside the couple’s Manhattan apartment.

At 2:37 a.m., police responded to 63 Clinton Street in the Lower East Side where they found 23-year-old Sarah Coit in the living room with multiple stab wounds to her body. EMS responded and transported the victim to Beth Israel Hospital where she was pronounced dead.

College student Sarah Coit, 23, was fatally stabbed on April 10. Her live-in boyfriend was arrested and charged. (credit: CBS 2)

“We were afraid, we didn’t know what was happening,” one neighbor told CBS 2′s Dave Carlin. “There was a lot of commotion.”

Crime scene investigators were working into the night at the Lower East Side building where Coit was trapped with her killer, screaming for mercy and help. Those early morning cries now haunt the neighbors.

“Just like, ‘stop, stop, don’t hurt me,’” neighbor Briana Andalore said.

1010 WINS’ Sonia Rincon has the latest details

Download: stab-3rincon-w38-soc-mcmorrow.mp3titles=1010%20WINS'%20Sonia%20Rincon%20has%20the%20latest%20details

Raul Barrera, Coit’s live-in boyfriend, was charged with her murder. Barrera turned himself in to police a few hours after the murder.

Police say Coit’s throat was slashed so savagely that she was nearly decapitated. Neighbors saw the fatal wound as the body was taken out of the building.

Neighbors said they heard loud arguments with the same voices before, but this time it was so intense that some went out into their hallways to investigate. They said that because the sounds were echoing, it was difficult locating the right apartment.

“‘What room are you in, what’s your name, where are you,’” witness Yoost Bohnen said. “She didn’t react; she continued screaming.”

Coit moved to the city from her hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut, living for a while in the Upper East Side.

“Met her mom a couple of times, nice person, nice family,” former neighbor Derek Guadalupe said. “It’s really sad.”

Guadalupe remembered Coit attending Hunter college, where she studied advertising and marketing.

Now, family and friends will remember a young life stolen before graduation and countless other milestones.

Raul Barrera was being held at Manhattan Central Booking Sunday night. He is expected to be arraigned Monday.

Boyfriend Charged In Fatal Stabbing Of College Student

Jesus

SKIP these sort of things are usually done by ignorant rednecks like you.
khulifi

Thats bad comment
elizabeth bolo

let us all cherish the sanctity of life,we have no right whatsoever to take it ,including our own,sorry to all family members and friends of Sarah
DF

If any of you happen to be outraged in your relationship and hate your partner to an extent you could kill, why not breakup/divorce?????????? Could save tears of many and most imporatantly save you from a very long jail time.
HB

People are talking about standards and principles, there’s no boy friend girl friend relationship in history, these things are new in this lost world. There is only marriage between two lovers who can sacrifice for each other and not kill each other.
carol

Why she would choose to hook up with a low life is beyond me – nature has unseen laws made over thousands of centuries – when you choose an unsuitable mate, disaster looms..I wish some young women would be more discerning in taste.
sad.

Captain

Carol…he prob has satisfying appendage thats why she hooked up!! dumb choice

carol

Thats not always true about the appendage – but then when people like you say things like that, then you create a myth …which unfortunately some people out there do believe..there are smart women out there who make good smart choices..and are happy..and alive.

mike

because he is black that means he is low life dont be stupid im black and ive neen dating the hottest girls in nyc for 10yrs if your black speak well have the right friends life is great in nyc but u dont put your hands on a women no matter what

Balboa High School, Panama

Skin Color has nothing 2 do with what happen… This happens in any type of skin color… So please let’s not get started with dat… This should haved never happend… Regarless of the Skin Color…
Balboa High School, Panama

Its just a Shocker, specially when You know the person who commited the Crime. Yes, I went 2 school with him and he was relatively quiet, but some how things started to change & was getting much attention because of his Athletic activities with others… I cant say anything negative about him back then, but the reality is that this happened, and is So Sad to se this happen to anyone. I am Speachless…

classmate of accused

I went to school with him also, I feel the same as you do, just heard about this from another classmate..our heart goes out to the victim & to our classmate…we know he was sweet, quiet, nothing like these blogs are describing him…the news article says she described herself as a swinger on her facebook page, so he probably caught her cheating & beat up a guy before he found her cheating with but that is still no excuse for what he did..SHOCKER..he should have just tell her bounce..he could have had any girl he wanted…NO EXCUSE FOR HIS BEHAVIOR, my prayers for the victims families, they are innocent

George S

Don’t mean to sound cold. Poor choices, that simple.
stangace20

This is what happens when you don’t have standards
mjones

i wonder what kept all of those neighbors from just picking up the phone and dialing 91? what is wrong with people?

Way to Think

Because they would have gotten there in time, I’m sure.
Eva

This reminded me of the Mary Joe Kopenee (sp) case in the 60′s where people looked out of their windows watching her get murdered and no one called the police,, amazing.

maritess siozon

What a coward…..i hate that guy!!..he should cut his own throat instead!!!…..only crazy man can do such things……
DB

The company you keep and the choices you make will define your legacy. Do you want to be a crime stat or a person? There were clearly warning signs she chose to ignore. But like most battered women she followed the path they usually take, which is not to leave thinking things will be better, he supports me where will I go, what will my friends think, he’s telling my friends and family I’m a liar and they won’t believe etc etc. Sad.
LT ASIAN

ANNOUNCEMENT ANYONE WHO HA A PARTNER AND EVEN YOUR B.F OR HUSBAND. BE ACREFULL ….. YOU CANT TRUST ANYBODY IN THIS WORLD .. SMALL ARGUMENT ITS GOIND TO BIG SPECIALLY INVOLVE A RELATIONSHIP… SO ITS BETTER KEEP AND WATCH BECAUSE THE EVIL LIKE A ROARING LION LOOKING FOR A VICTIMS… SO IN THIS WORLD SATAN THE EVIL… CAN ENFLUENCE YOUR MIND .. YOU STAY FROM A PERSON WHO YOU DONT KNOW ABOUT THE BACKGROUND..,,, NOW ITS HARD TO DEAL A PERSON ,,,BETTER STAY AWAKE AND KEEP PRAYER AND DONT ARGUING IF HIS GOING TO CRAZY…

D’Brickashaw Chang

LT ASIAN,

Speak Engrish!
ANALTIMETWISTER

ILL TAKE THE PORK FRIED LICE WITH 2 EGG ROLLS AND SWEAT AND SOUR SAUCE PLEEZE…

Bear Buyer

I didn’t know you couldn do that.
apples

I AGREE…HERE IS A PRETTY GIRL INVOLVED WITH A LOW LIFE!!! There are NO good men anymore!

SKIP

yes there are, and we are White, non muslim and citizens.

Zeeba Neeba

so true Skip, so very true!

mike nnawuchi

it was kitty genovese you dumb inbred fool mary jo was drowned by edward kennedy in a car accident

Leonard

I’m one of the “nice guys” who can’t find a woman. I’ve been told that I’m not assertive enough and I’m too boring. Nice girls go for tough guys who abuse them.

nathan

Lenny – get a leather jacket, don’t shave so often, pump some iron and curse once in a while. You’ll get more P than you can handle.

Ellen

What is it with these young women going out with thugs. What’s the matter with a nice, decent man?

Natalie

that’s because there are NO NICE DECENT MEN!! most men that i’ve dated only want one thing, then they aren’t interested anymore. you tell me where to find decent and normal men and i will go there. i guess sometimes, you are better off alone.

CatsAreBetter

Natalie,

Not alone — Stephanie Plum has a hamster, you might try a cat! Seriously, it becomes harder to find decent, respectable, and (rare as hens’ teeth!) employed men. Notice I didn’t add intelligent, normal, or affectionate! That’s why this 23 year old ended up with a 33 year old loser. Guess who was paying the rent, supporting the pair of them, while he whined that everyone was against him.
jack tripper

Let me guess Natalie….you are single and lonely…..
keep up the positive outlook on men, soon you’ll be old, in addition to lonely
Jeff R

Actually Natalie there are a lot of nice decent men around The only thing is as a rule they’re shy and unaggressive and afraid to ask girls out. So if you find someone who seems that way make the move and ask him out!!!
Raul Lumacad

It’s just that most people who are so nice and unaggressive are gay
SKIP

Lots of us good men are in Afghanistan and Iraq. Keep in mind, we are also WHITE and non muslim!!

Shawn

That’s because these young women have been brainwashed by the media from the day they were born that “nice, decent men” are serial killers who stalk women, cut them up, and stash them in a refrigerator. Or kill their wife, and do the same.

When that rare crime happens somewhere in a white suburb, it’s a national news story. When 100′s of these crimes happen in Harlem or some other ghetto, it’s a statistic in the back of your newspaper.

It’s sad that Sarah unlearned those early teen-hood “media lessons” when the knife had already been halfway past her throat, stuck there by her precious black boyfriend, who was just so sweet before it happened, and who Sarah, between all the warning signs, hoped to “change” as a self-righteous, self-sacrificing, brainwashed, young white woman whose proper job it is, as she learned when growing up, is to spread “diversity” and avoid those evil, white “creepy” men.

Adam

That Asian juror who was villified -said she did not respect hispanics and blacks when reading the papers, presumably. Looking at this article and the other ones. The black girls slicing the face of a girl whose crime was she was pretty. This violence does not bring respect. And it’s up to hispanics and blacks to stop this violence since obviously no one else can.
M. B. Brown

Woman than hang with Macho tough men and think it’s
cute when they call you Mommy should learn that these
guys never leave their woman and won’t let them go away
from them either. Sad but these men rather murder than
be left alone.

mike

i agree nothing more dangerous than a dominican man being rejected i for one never date a girl with a Dominican ex-boyfriend

Jennifer

It is true that people have to much weapons in the USA

matt

You don’t have any knives in your kitchen?

Bob

As I understand it, New York has the “toughest” weapons control laws in the United States. I remember a case back in the ’60s where a woman, who stabbed her attacker with a hat pin, was put on trial for assault with a deadly weapon. Do you need new laws, hell no! Just enforce those laws that are already on the books, but use a bit of common sence when applying the law.

RealityCheck

@Bob: You cannot rely on the police anymore. Bloomberg and the rest of NYC has deemed them overpaid. So why should they respond to your 911 call?

NORMAN

How brave and STUPID Raul is- TOO stupid to walk away (PROBABLY CAN’T TAKE REJECTION), needs a knife to settle matters . Solution? Self-Defence! Whatever means that is required to SURVIVE. Deadly Force is a SURVIVAL mode. If this innocent woman was armed, her chances of SURVIVAL would have increased appreciably !! Hopefully , those of you who ‘entangled’
with HOT HEADED boy friends-WILL TAKE HEED!!
Keepin it real

Another law is not what is needed. Good common sense & moral intent towards your fellow human is what is needed. Peoples minds & hearts towards each other is focused on evil & not moral intent. The knife or the gun or any other weapon is the tool used, the person committing the crime is the one in the wrong. Whether the crime is physical, mental, emotional, racial, financial… peoples hearts & minds are disgusting towards one another. People need to focus on their hate issues not solely on the “law”.
Tony Boxxo

There are far too many unregulated and unregistered knives out there in the hands of unqualified and untrained people. Now is the time for effective knife control laws. Possession of a knife should require police licensing after a thorough background check, including criminal record, mental hygiene history and a knife safety training course. Knife owners should also be required to carry liability insurance. Even if it saves one life it is worh the inconvenience to the public. Where is Chuck Schumber when you need him? Why the silence?

1608

Dose the gun laws ring a bell?

Good how’s that workin?

stangace20

it’s a stabbing not a shooting

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Boyfriend Charged In Fatal Stabbing Of College Student

April 10, 2011 11:59 PM

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