Man gets 60 years behind bars in stabbing, dismemberment

HACKENSACK, N.J. (AP) - A northern New Jersey man is heading to prison for fatally stabbing and dismembering a man who prosecutors say was his live-in boyfriend.

Thirty-eight-year-old Pedro Garcia was sentenced Thursday to 60 years behind bars in the 2011 killing of 46-year-old Francisco Gonzalez Fuentes.

Prosecutors say Garcia and Wilfredo Sanchez were at a party hosted by Fuentes when the Cliffside Park man told guests that Garcia was his boyfriend. Investigators say Garcia became enraged, denied the relationship with Fuentes and enlisted Sanchez’s help in killing him.

Fuentes’ dismembered body was found discarded in different garbage bags.

Garcia said in a letter read by the judge that he apologizes to Fuentes’ family.

His attorney says Garcia will appeal the verdict.

Sanchez was sentenced in 2014 to life in prison for his role.

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Information from: The Record (Woodland Park, N.J.), https://www.northjersey.com