MARC ANTHONY BOOKAL - 4 yo (2009) - Newburgh NY

Marc's mother on guilty verdict for Byrd: 'God will get him in the end. Justice was done'

By Heather Yakin

Times Herald-Record

Published: 10:11 AM - 01/26/12

Last updated: 2:49 PM - 01/26/12

GOSHEN – Today's guilty verdict for Cory Byrd in the beating death of 4-year-old Marc Bookal brought a small amount of relief to Marc's mother, Christina Bookal, and father Yul Bookal.

Yul Bookal said justice was served, and he's glad Byrd won't be coming out of prison any time soon.

“Cory is the great pretender,” he said. “He was pretending to be this great guy. Behind her (Christina Bookal's) back, he was this monster.

Christina Bookal doesn't believe Byrd will ever tell the truth about what happened.

“You could see his face and his reaction. He's not going to change,” she said. “God will get him in the end. Justice was done.”

Christina Bookal was in court when the jury came back at 12:10 p.m. Thursday and announced they had found Byrd guilty of second-degree murder and evidence tampering in Marc's death.

Byrd, 32, of Newburgh, was charged in the disappearance and death of his then-girlfriend's son on Dec. 14, 2009. He told police that the little boy, who was home sick, wandered next door to his aunt's house and disappeared.

Police launched an intensive search of the neighborhood around Marc's home at 11 Benkard Ave. in the
City of Newburgh. But it wasn't until March 24, 2010, that a police cadaver dog found Marc's remains stuffed inside two bags in a vacant lot about a quarter-mile away from Bookal's apartment.

The jury began its deliberations on the charges on Wednesday afternoon. They weighed two counts of second-degree murder and counts of first- and second-degree manslaughter, under four different theories of how Marc's death happened; and two felony counts of tampering with physical evidence, based on prosecutors' contentions that Byrd destroyed evidence by hiding Marc's body and by soaking a sweatshirt in bleach.

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120126/NEWS/120129813/-1/NEWS

God doesn't want him. He belongs to Satan.

02/20/2012 06:14 PM

Father of slain Marc Bookal setting up foundation

By: Elaina Athans

Four-year-old Marc Bookal was founded dead in Newburgh more than two years with bruises covering his body. Bookal's father is now trying to make sure that doesn't happen to other children. Our Elaina Athans has more.

NEWBURGH -- “From time to time it’s gets pretty rough, but I’m trying my best to cope with it,” said Yul Bookal.

The father of a slained Newburgh boy is on a mission to help children unable to help themselves. Marc Bookal was killed December 2009 and now a foundation is being set up in his honor.

"It’s just to keep his memory alive and turn something positive that came out of the negative," said Yul Bookal.

Four-year-old Bookal was discovered in an abandon lot with bruises on his body.

Last month, Cory Byrd was found guilty of killing the child. The proseuction said Byrd beat Bookal with such force and indifference, it would have been impossible for the boy to move after the beating.

Bookal’s father is setting up a non-profit to help abused children in the city.

He said if something like this was around in 2009, his son might still be alive today.

"It’s to help kids in the process, to ensure that nothing like this will happen in Newburgh again," said Yul Bookal.

Paperwork is now being filed and the hope is by April, there will be an event for the greater Newburgh community, where kids can just be kids, play around and simply enjoy life.

As far as Byrd, the man convicted of taking a child's life too soon, he'll be sentenced March 8th.

http://hudsonvalley.ynn.com/content/top_stories/574434/father-of-slain-marc-bookal-setting-up-foundation/

Cory Byrd sentenced to 50 years to life in murder of Marc Bookal

By Heather Yakin

Published: 12:26 PM - 03/08/12

Last updated: 12:43 PM - 03/08/12


GOSHEN – Cory Byrd was sentenced Thursday to 50
years to life in prison for the murder of 4-year-old Marc Bookal and for
disposing of his body .

Byrd was alone with Marc, the son of Byrd's then-girlfriend, when the boy disappeared in
December 2009. The child; body was found three months later, stuffed
inside a book bag and playpen bag from the family's apartment. Marc's
remains were found hidden under a dense brush pile in a vacant lot just a
few blocks from the home. A jury convicted Byrd on Jan. 26 of reckless,
depraved-indifference murder and two felony counts of tampering with
physical evidence.

On Thursday, Byrd had to face the woman who had trusted him: Marc's mother, Christina Bookal.

She spoke about Marc's birth as a happiest day of her life, and she talked
about the joy her sweet, smiling youngest child brought her.

“The worst day of my life was hearing he was murdered by someone I trusted,
who was supposed to love my family like his own,” she said. “Cory made
me believe he didn't do it, and it was somebody else because of jealousy.”

The pain of losing Marc never goes away, she
said. “I wanted to see him go to high school and college. All my hopes
and dreams for my baby were demolished.”

She told Judge Jeffrey Berry that Byrd deserved the longest sentence the
court can give, “without sunlight – since he took my sunlight away.”

Yul Bookal, Marc's father, said the last time he saw Marc, he bought him a
pack of gum, He'd asked Marc if the boy was going to give some to Byrd.
“He said ‘yeah, I love Cory,'” Yul Bookal told the court, his voice thick with tears.
“Why (did) Marc have to die the way he did? He died a brutal death,” he said. “He didn't deserve it.”

“This community has a collective broken heart at the loss of one of its
youngest and most vulnerable citizens,” Assistant District Attorney
Karen Edelman-Reyes told the court, calling the way Marc died – beaten
so severely that even though his remains were found three months after
his death the signs of terrible deep bruising on his buttock and ankles
and a massive brain hemorrhage were still clear to a medical examiner –
“inhuman and unforgiveable.”

She asked the court to impose the maximum sentence allowed by law: 25 years to life
for murder, and 25 years to life for Byrd as a persistent felony offender on each of the evidence-tampering charges, to run concurrently with each other and consecutive to the murder sentence.

“We have pity and sorrow only for Marc and the people who loved him,” Edelman-Reyes said.
Byrd maintained his innocence.

“I understand this is a very sad situation for Christina and her family,
because her kids mean a lot to her,” he said. “But your honor, I didn't
commit this crime. I was wrongfully charged and convicted, and the
People didn't prove the case against me.”

Byrd's lawyer, Joseph Brown, said a sentence of 20 years to life would be sufficient.
Berry imposed the sentence as Edelman-Reyes recommended, for a total of 50 years to life.

“This little child lived a nightmare of nightmares that no normal-functioning
human would wish upon their worst enemy,” Berry said, lighting into
Byrd. “The injuries that Marc sustained were inhumanly inflicted on this
child.”

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120308/NEWS/120309798/-1/NEWS

I can live with 50 years.

Too bad we won't find out when the other convicts beat him down. May it happen daily.

what about the "mother"? she left marc with this idiot!!

Finally a decent sentence given to a child murderer. I'm so sick of some murderers getting a short sentence so it's good to hear this guy will live the rest of his life in jail. I agree with you Twink and hope his inmates beat his arse everyday. And I wish we could hear about it too.

Flash, I blame the mother also. She can whine about how he "FOOLED" her but that doesn't do it for me. She should also have been prosecuted.

these "mothers" need to be held responsible for their choices!! it just drives me crazy! why have children if ur not going to love them and take care of them?

Saturday
April 19, 2014


Appeals court upholds conviction in Marc Bookal murder case

Byrd

GOSHEN – The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court has affirmed the conviction of the man who killed Marc Bookal, the four-year-old Newburgh boy, whose body was dumped in a wooded area of Newburgh.

Cory Byrd, 34, of Newburgh, who was the boyfriend of the young boy’s mother, was convicted by an Orange County Court jury of murder and two counts of tampering with physical evidence and on March 8, 2012 was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison.

On December 14, 2009, Marc was left in the care of Byrd. He severely beat the child after the boy woke up having wet the bed and becoming sick and messed in his pants. Byrd had been out trying to buy marijuana and to sell phony drugs.

The child suffered a hematoma in his skull and intense bruising to his buttocks and ankles. Young marc died as a result of the beating.

Byrd then stuffed the boy’s body into a pack-n-play bag that had held Marc’s portable crib, and then put the bag into the boy’s mother’s school backpack. Byrd took the bag with the body to a nearby wooded area and hid it under a pile of cut trees.

His body was not discovered until the following March when the thaw lead a police cadaver dog to find the decomposing body.

District Attorney David Hoovler was obviously pleased that the high court affirmed the conviction.

“The considered the arguments made by the defendant and then they considered the arguments made by the prosecution and they found the defendant most importantly received a fair trial and as a result of that fair trial they upheld the conviction and obviously that is very favorable to us,” Hoovler said.

The DA said our children are our future “and those who abuse and murder children deserve the most severe punishment.”


http://www.midhudsonnews.com/News/2014/April/19/Byrd_appeal-19Apr14.html