DOOMED: A pal said yesterday she once saw bruises on slay victim Tina Adovasio inflicted by Eddy Coello.
BOMBSHELL: Monica Rodriguez leaves court yesterday after testifying that her ex-beau Eddy Coello phoned her to confess he had murdered his wife. (Robert Kalfus)
The ex-girlfriend of a former housing cop on trial for the murder of his wife told jurors yesterday that he confessed to the gruesome crime to her, calling in the middle of the night to say that he’d “snapped.”
“There is no easy way to say what I’m about to tell you,” ex-cop Eddy Coello allegedly told Monica Rodriguez in the 2 a.m. phone call, according to Rodriguez.
“You did it?” she replied.
“Yes, I did,” Coello replied, according to her testimony in Bronx Supreme Court.
Rodriguez said Coello told her he “just snapped.”
She said the March 17, 2011, call came after Tina Adovasio’s body had been found by two teenagers riding ATVs in the woods near the Taconic State Parkway in Westchester, days after she had been reported missing.
Rodriguez said Coello also told her he had a good lawyer and would probably get only five to 20 years in prison for the crime and would come out of jail “a better person.”
Coello fathered a daughter with Rodriguez 19 years ago.
He made a similar confession to his boss, according to another witness. At the time, the former cop worked as a physician’s assistant for an orthopedic surgeon, Michael Cushner, who testified that Coello admitted he “blacked out” and killed Adovasio.
“He said, ‘Doc, I’m very sorry that I had to put you through this, the office through this, but I did it,” Cushner said.
Cushner, 44, said Coello seemed despondent over Adovasio’s death.
“But he said he wouldn’t commit suicide because he was very religious,” Cushner said.
Earlier, a friend of Adovasio testified about bruises she saw on the victim after a workout session.
Adovasio, a nurse, had already told the friend about her violent husband, but Margo Paladines said she saw the results of the abuse for herself during a post-exercise sauna.
“It was very visible,” Paladines said. “She said he was very aggressive. He was mentally and physically abusive.”
Paladines also said Adovasio told her she was reluctant to reach out for help.
“She said she was afraid to call police because he threatened to kill her if she did,” Paladines said.
Prosecutors say Coello, 41, flew into a rage after Adovasio told him in text messages that she wanted a divorce because she suspected him of cheating.
Coello told police that his wife had stormed out of their home after a fight.
His alibi quickly unraveled when security video showed him leaving their apartment building alone and carrying a duffel bag.
Coello’s volatile marriage to Adovasio was marred by several incidents of domestic strife.
In February 2005, Coello pleaded guilty to second-degree harassment after a domestic incident and received a conditional discharge.
In February 2007, he was arrested for an attack on Adovasio that landed her in a hospital. That case was sealed.
In November 2010, police were called to their home after a fight, but no arrests were made.
Coello’s abusive behavior with another girlfriend got him kicked out of the NYPD in 2000.
Adovasio was the mother of Coello’s 6-year-old daughter and had three children from a previous marriage.