An Edgemere man is being held without bail after he was criminally charged with murder for allegedly shooting his girlfriend to death at the Ocean Bay Apartments in Arverne and then dumping her body in a hastily dug grave about a half mile away at the Rockaway Community Park along Jamaica Bay.

Rogelio Lozano-Garito, 26, of Beach 40th Street, was arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on Wednesday on a criminal complaint charging him with murder in the second degree, criminal possession of a weapon, concealment of a human corpse, and tampering with physical evidence.

According to the charges and investigation, sometime on the morning of Monday, Oct. 19, between 2:16 a.m. and 6:04, Lozano-Garita shot 35-year-old Seraphina Pereira in the head inside an apartment at 3-43 Beach 54th St. he was sharing with her and their two young children and Pereira’s child from a previous relationship instead of his residence on Beach 40th Street in Edgemere. After allegedly killing the mother of three, Lozano-Garita concealed her body in a pull wagon and wheeled it to the beach inside Rockaway Community Park just over four blocks away. He then allegedly buried her body in a shallow grave on the beach. The defendant returned to the Ocean Bay Apartments a short time later without the wagon.

Lozano-Garita reported Pereira missing to police by calling 911 two days later, on Wednesday, Oct. 21. He claimed to the police that he received a box dropped off at the apartment building which contained the victim’s belongings and a note left behind by a surfer who Lozano-Garita claimed found the belongings on the beach. Her decomposing remains were discovered in the shallow grave on the night of Saturday, Oct. 24, after the NYPD K9 unit conducted a search of the beach.

“As alleged, the defendant mercilessly killed his girlfriend — the mother of his children,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “He attempted to cover up the crime by wheeling her body in a pull wagon to a nearby park and burying the woman in a shallow grave.”

Lozano-Garita was taken into custody on the night of Saturday, Oct. 24, after a brief manhunt. Police from the 101st Precinct in Far Rockaway received reports that he had barricaded himself in the Ocean Bay Apartments and members of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit responded to the scene. The reports turned out to be unfounded, but they apprehended Lozano-Garita nearby.

On Monday, Oct. 26, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner deemed Pereira’s death a homicide. Lozano-Garita was arrested just before 9 p.m. and booked at the 101st Precinct.

As detectives led him out of the stationhouse on Tuesday afternoon, Lozano-Garita professed his innocence to a mob of reporters assembled on Mott Avenue.

“I am innocent, I didn’t kill her,” he said as he was escorted out of the precinct.

He was arraigned the next day before Queens Criminal Court Judge Thomas Wright-Fernandez, who remanded Lozano-Garita into custody without bail.

“I want to thank my Assistant District Attorneys and our law enforcement partners for making sure there will be accountability in this homicide,” Katz said.

Lozano-Garita faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Senior Reporter. Reach me at bparry@schnepsmedia.com

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