Man Sentenced 25 Years To Life For 'Brutal' 2007 Times Square Hotel Murder

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — A man convicted of killing a woman he brought back to his Times Square hotel for sex will face 25 years to life in prison, the Manhattan District Attorney's office announced Monday.

Clarence Dean, of Alabama, was convicted in December of 2016 for the 2007 killing of 33-year-old Kristine Yitref, prosecutors said. Dean, now 45, met Yitref on the street in Times Square and invited her to his room at the Hotel Carter located on West 43rd Street between 7th and 8th Avenues.

Yitrif accepted Dean's offer and went back to the hotel with him around 4 a.m. on August 28th. Yitrif's body was found on August 30th when a maid came to clean the hotel room, according to the DA's office. Dean had cleaned the room, but left Yitrif's body and blood-soaked sheets and towels in a plastic garbage bag underneath the bed, prosecutors said.

Dean was arrested on August 31st, according to the DA's office. At the time Dean was a wanted fugitive in the state of Alabama.

"Clarence Dean committed a merciless and brutal act of violence against a vulnerable woman," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said in a statement. "After inviting the victim to his hotel room, Dean repeatedly struck her with such force that he reduced her bones to dust. He squeezed her neck so tightly that it snapped. He showed a complete disregard for human life, and now he will serve the maximum sentence possible for this barbaric crime."

Photo by Elvert Barnes via Flickr/Creative Commons