A 35-year-old chef bludgeoned to death by his roommate inside their Bronx NYCHA apartment had been complaining to friends in recent weeks about his uncomfortable living situation, the Daily News has learned
Miguel Batiz was bashed in the head with some sort of object inside his home in NYCHA’s Edenwald Houses about 4:00 a.m. Oct. 23, authorities say. A squabble with his 67-year-old roommate culminated in the slaying inside their building on E. 229th St. near Laconia Ave., according to cops.
“He always had trouble with his roommate situation,” the victim’s high school friend Eric Burgos said. “He was always posting on his [Facebook] story asking if anyone knew someone looking for a roommate and saying how he wanted to get out of his situation. That was over the past six months or so.”
Batiz’s roommate Enoch Rosado was arrested later on the day of the slaying and charged with murder, manslaughter and weapon possession.
When cops found Batiz badly bloodied and dead at the scene they initially believed he had been been stabbed multiple times — but ultimately his cause of death was determined to be blunt force trauma to the head, police said Sunday. Prosecutors say he was struck in the head with an object.
The shock slay left the victim’s friends wondering if they had missed signs of serious trouble.
“I wish I took those (Facebook) posts more seriously because he posted them pretty frequently,” said Burgos, 37. “I kind of was like, ‘Oh he was just kind of venting.’ But I had no idea he would end up in this type of situation.”
Stable housing had long been an issue for the victim.
“He was adopted so he always moved from apartment to apartment. He never stayed in the same place. People set roots, but he didn’t have that,” said Dwaneé Bowden, a college friend of the victim.
“There were times where I wanted him to live with us but he didn’t want to be a burden. I was like, ‘No you should come. I don’t want to see you living with random people and moving around a lot.’ That was one thing that I was concerned about, just his safety and making sure that nobody harmed him.”
Bowden remembered Batiz as a fun-loving guy who took pride in cooking Puerto Rican food for his many friends.
“He was just a giving person. He would feed everybody. We had a lot of parties and he was always in charge of the parties, cooking and putting the drink in everyone’s hand,” she said. “We’re gonna miss him a lot. He was just very smart, laid back and chill.”
“He wanted to fall in love real bad. He wanted to have children and get married. He wanted that love that he didn’t receive, I guess, from being adopted and moving around and just trying to figure out and navigate his life,” Bowden added.
“(Rosado) gypped him of a good life. (Batiz) was only 35 years old. This man was 67 years old so, even if justice is served, he’s about to die soon. He’s an old man. I feel like he got to live his life, whether he made bad decisions or not, and my friend just got his life cut short.”
Cops said it was not immediately clear what the pair’s disagreement was about but friends say they can’t picture Batiz being the aggressor.
“I know Miguel. He wouldn’t have done anything to entice that kind of behavior. He can be slick at the mouth, like any New Yorker, but he was never one to incite violence,” said Kori Francis, another of the victim’s close college friends. “He was very much all about either cooking or having a good time. That was all he was about.”
Francis, 35, who attended culinary school at Monroe College with Batiz, said he and the victim had looked forward to one day being in each other’s weddings and having their future kids play football together.
Batiz worked as a cook in a number of restaurants through the years. He also sold hot chocolate and slushy drinks at Yankee Stadium to pick up extra cash — and more importantly to catch a glimpse of the games.
“He was the biggest Yankees fan so any way he could be at a game, he would,” said Francis.
Batiz studied culinary arts in Italy for several months in college and had hopes of studying his craft abroad again.
The victim “wanted his name to mean something in the culinary world,” Francis said.
“He won’t get a chance to experience any of that,” he added. “[Rosado] took honestly one of the brightest people, in terms of the light you bring into the world.”
Rosado was ordered held without bail when he was arraigned in Bronx Criminal Court and is due back in court Nov. 13. He has more than 30 prior arrests, most of them drug related, PIX11 News reported.
“I don’t know exactly what was the straw that broke the camel’s back,” Francis said of the suspect. “But whatever it was couldn’t have been more important than (Batiz’s) life. I hope, and I know this sounds petty, but I hope (the suspect) burns in hell.”
