Bronx man sentenced to 12 years for killing pregnant woman in 1996 cold case
BRONX, NY – Nearly three decades after a pregnant woman was strangled to death inside her Bronx apartment, a man linked to the crime through DNA evidence has been sentenced to 12 years in state prison, closing one of the borough’s longest-running homicide investigations.
Gregory Fleetwood, 69, was sentenced Thursday in Bronx Supreme Court after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter in the 1996 killing of 36-year-old Jasmine Porter. The case was revived years later after DNA found beneath the victim’s fingernails was matched to Fleetwood through advances in forensic technology.
The killing occurred on February 5, 1996, inside Porter’s apartment at 1706 Davidson Avenue in the Morris Heights section of the Bronx. Investigators determined that Porter was choked to death while her 5-year-old son was present in the home. The child remained alone with his mother’s body for two days before she was discovered.
At the time of the crime, DNA evidence was collected but could not be matched. In 2022, testing linked the genetic material to Fleetwood, whose DNA profile was already in a database due to a prior conviction involving the strangulation of a pregnant woman in 1987.
Fleetwood entered his guilty plea on December 10 and was sentenced by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio. The prosecution credited renewed forensic testing and collaboration among multiple agencies for finally bringing the case to a resolution.
The sentencing marks the end of a case that remained unresolved for nearly 30 years, offering a measure of closure to a family and a now-grown child who lived with the aftermath of the crime.
Key Points
- Gregory Fleetwood was sentenced to 12 years for a 1996 Bronx homicide
- DNA under the victim’s fingernails led to a match decades later
- The victim was killed in front of her young child inside her apartment