Broadway dancer is sentenced over murder of boyfriend in ‘crystal meth binge’
Broadway dancer Marcus Bellamy. (Marcus Bellamy/Facebook)
A Broadway dancer and actor has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for strangling and beating to his boyfriend to death.
Marcus Bellamy, who performed in the Broadway show Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark, murdered his partner Bernardo Almonte, 27, at their apartment in Morris Heights, New York City, back in August 2016.
The 35-year-old dancer, who also has film credits in The Breeding (2018) and Smash (2012), claimed he and his boyfriend smoked crystal meth together on the night of the murder.
New York Daily News reports that Almonte’s mother cried as she recalled how her son had beaten off a cancer scare 11 years before he was killed.
Broadway dancer to serve 20 years in jail for murder of boyfriend
“I couldn’t believe what I was hearing—having won the battle over cancer, I was shocked to hear he had lost his life at the hands of someone else after God had given him a second chance of life,” she told the court.
“Bernardo was very special and he didn’t deserve what happened to him.”
—Marcus Bellamy
Bellamy apologised to Almonte’s family for the murder in court.
“I want to apologise to the family,” he said.
“Bernardo was very special and he didn’t deserve what happened to him. You asked me why.
Marcus Bellamy apologised over the murder. (Marcus Bellamy/Facebook)
“Your son and I used to smoke a lot of crystal meth together.
“On this day, I thought your son was the devil. I didn’t want to do what I did. I want to make that clear.
“I loved Bernardo. He took me out of my depression. I didn’t mean to destroy somebody.”
Broadway dancer apologises to family for murder of boyfriend
Shortly after the murder in 2016, Bellamy posted a series of erratic Facebook posts, at one point saying “forgive me father” and “I did it for love.”
He then confessed to the murder to his neighbour.
Bellamy pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter in February.
He will serve 20 years in prison and be supervised for five years after his release.
