She was a beautiful, 23-year-old millionaire’s daughter from Greenwich, Connecticut. He was a suave fashion publicist, ten years her senior.
Today, more than a year after she was found butchered and dying in their Lower East Side apartment, Raul Barrera pleaded guilty to murdering her for wanting to leave him.
The plea — which exposes Barrera to anywhere from 15 years to life in prison — saves the family of tragic Sarah Coit from enduring a murder trial which had promised to be rife with gruesome autopsy evidence and testimony.
Coit had been stabbed repeatedly, and with multiple knives. Her screams had alerted neighbors and police too late — she was found face up, partially beheaded and eviscerated, with the blade of a knife still lodged in her skull.
“Going to trial, he figured, wasn’t his best option,” said defense lawyer Paul Feinman.
Manhattan Supreme Court Richard Carruthers will render a sentence after hearing evidence from both sides in the coming weeks.
Coit, a stunner at 5′-10″ who ran cross-country at Greenwich High School and had studied advertising and marketing at Hunter College, is the daughter of Lynde Coit, her father, a Cornell-educated lawyer and senior advisor to the CEO at Plasco Energy Group Inc.
Barerra was a vice president of the Coleman Entertainment Group public relations firm.
Feinman had been poised to argue at trial that Barerra was suffering from extreme emotional distress when he killed Coit. The lawyer would not confirm if he will raise that issue again at the upcoming sentencing hearing.
Prosecutors are expected to ask for the maximum — 25 years to life.