Ex-NYC Cop Convicted of Strangling Wife

The jury found Eddy Coello, 40, guilty of murder in the death of estranged wife, nurse Tina Adovasio

A former police officer was convicted Monday of strangling his wife, a mother of four whose body was found in the woods last year near the Taconic State Parkway in suburban Yorktown.

The jury found Eddy Coello, 40, guilty of murder in the death of Tina Adovasio, according to the Bronx district attorney's office.

Adovasio, 40, a nurse, disappeared March 11, and her body was found five days later north of their Throgs Neck home. Adovasio died of asphyxiation and suffered blunt trauma to the head and chest, authorities said.

The couple's lengthy relationship had a history of domestic violence. There was at least one order of protection against Coello from 2007, police said. Adovasio had been seeking to separate and had filed another restraining order against Coello, but didn't yet serve him the papers, her attorney said.

Coello was a New York Police Department officer for four years. He resigned from the force in 2000 amid a domestic violence investigation involving a former wife.

Coello and Adovasio had a 5-year-old daughter together. Adovasio had three other children, ages 17, 15 and 11, from a previous marriage.

During the trial, Coello's attorney argued that her client "snapped" and that it was never his intent to kill.

Coello faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison at his sentencing Nov. 1.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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