Gal pal of accused cleaning lady killer Joseph Pabon stands by her man
BY Tanyanika Samuels, Matthew Lysiak and Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
The girlfriend of the elevator operator charged with killing a cleaning woman stood by her man Saturday - appearing at his Manhattan arraignment on murder charges.
Lisa Marie Blumenberg sat stone-faced in court as Joseph Pabon, 26, was ordered held without bail in the death of Eridania Rodriguez.
Pabon didn't say a word during the brief hearing, but rubbed his face and yawned several times.
Hours later, his gal pal cursed out reporters after she returned to the Staten Island home she shares with the surly, burly building worker.
"She's standing by his side, confident he did not do this crime," defense lawyer Mario Gallucci said outside Manhattan Criminal Court.
Blumenberg appears to be the loyal type. Pabon has a previous arrest for allegedly choking her and smashing her car windshield with a bowling ball.
Blumenberg's supporting her beau in the face of DNA evidence that cops say solidly links Pabon to Rodriguez's death.
His genetic material was found under the victim's fingernail, and both his and Rodriguez's DNA was on a work glove left at the crime scene.
The 46-year-old mother of three disappeared July 7 while cleaning a desolate floor of the Rector St. office building where Pabon also worked.
After four days of searching, she was found stuffed in an air duct - asphyxiated by heavy tape covering her mouth. Cops believe she was alive when she was shoved inside.
"I want Pabon to feel pain," Rodriguez's brother, Victor Martinez, 35, said. "My sister didn't die right away. He let her suffer like an animal, and he should die like an animal."
Tests showed Rodriguez wasn't raped, but it's unclear if her attacker tried to sexually assault her.
Pabon was the prime suspect from the start.
He had suspicious scratches on his torso, arms and neck; gave conflicting statements to cops over whether he saw Rodriguez the night she disappeared, and left work early that night, authorities said.
Gallucci shrugged off the forensic evidence Saturday, saying the scratch marks on Pabon's body could have come from "yard work or moving."
"If you saw the marks, they're laughable," Gallucci said, adding that his client ditched work that day because he wasn't feeling well.
Pabon was busted Friday by a team of undercover cops who had tailed him around the clock since Rodriguez's body was discovered July 11.
He was sitting in the backseat of a pal's Honda Accord when police swooped in at a red light with guns drawn, and cuffed him on Clove Road in Staten Island.
Rodriguez's loved ones, who are in the Dominican Republic to bury her, believed Pabon was the killer and were anxious for police to arrest him.
"I don't know what is in Pabon's soul, but to just show up to work and murder someone you barely know is heartless," family friend Adina Stewart said. "He has left this family devastated. It's unspeakably horrific."
