What happened to Bruce Blackwood? Details about the subject of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler

Bruce Blackwood was a manager of an Off-Track Betting parlor and a New York City real estate entrepreneur, whose body was found mutilated. Family and friends thought he might have been murdered because he did not return home on time.

Police later proved them right. He had been dismembered by his handyman, Luis Perez. On September 29, 2015, Perez was found guilty of second-degree murder and got a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to life.

The case is documented in the second episode of Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler season 2. It airs on February 8, 2025, at 8 pm ET/PT on Oxygen.

---

The disappearance and discovery of Bruce Blackwood's body

According to a statement issued by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, Bruce Blackwood's disappearance in March 2006 provoked immediate alarm. According to the court documents from the United States District Court, E.D. New York, Blackwood bought several properties in Brooklyn and hired Perez to manage some apartments.

Court scene (Representative Photo by Pexels )

According to a statement issued by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, when Blackwood disappeared, his friend Diane Mason-Smith was astonished to find that he did not answer his phone, which went straight to voicemail. Mason-Smith and another friend went to Blackwood's house on Hancock Street and saw Perez driving Blackwood's car.

They followed Perez, who stopped the car and looked at them before Mason-Smith reported Blackwood missing to the police and briefed them on the problems with Perez. The case was put to speed when Perez's daughter, Irene Perez, in July 2011 revealed the clue. She told Detective Wendell Stradford that her father had confessed to having killed Blackwood.

According to the court documents, she also divulged that she had recorded Perez as he confessed to the crime. In the audio tape, Perez described how he choked Blackwood and then used a machete to cut up his body and dispose of it in construction-grade plastic bags, using hospital-grade bleach to clean up the crime scene.

The NYPD believed that Blackwood's apartment was where Perez dismembered Blackwood's body.

---

The trial and conviction

According to a statement issued by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, the trial of Luis Perez presented significant challenges because Blackwood's body was never found. The state relied on circumstantial evidence such as the audio recorded by Perez's daughter.

During testimony at trial, it was stated that Blackwood had discovered that Perez had stolen his cheque book and cashed several cheques against Blackwood's account totaling $7,700. Blackwood confronted Perez with the theft on March 6, 2006, at one of his properties. Perez, who had a criminal record, murdered Blackwood to avoid a return to prison.

According to the New York Post, defense attorneys argued that there was no physical evidence that linked Perez to the death. The jury delivered a verdict of second-degree murder after deliberating for three hours.

According to a statement issued by the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun sentenced Perez to 25 years to life in prison. District Attorney Ken Thompson remarked,

"Even though we didn’t have a body, we were determined to get justice for Bruce Blackwood and his family. And that’s exactly what we did by using the defendant’s own words to convict him"

---

The aftermath

According to the court documents, the case of Bruce Blackwood's murder illustrates the need for proper investigations even in the absence of a body.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's Office statement says this conviction is yet another example of how forensic evidence combined with relentless police work could solve a cold case like Bruce Blackwood's murder. As shown in court papers, following the conviction, Perez filed a writ of habeas corpus, which was denied.