NYC Police Hold Suspect in College Student's Death

Sept. 2, 2008 — -- A college honors student found dead with an electrical cord wrapped around his neck apparently was suffocated with a pillow during a robbery by a stranger he invited to his Manhattan apartment, police said Tuesday.

Kevin Pravia, 19, was found in his bed Sunday night by his roommate. He was last seen being helped into a taxi early Saturday after a party in Brooklyn, and was reportedly drunk at the time.

Investigators said Tuesday a 22-year-old, being questioned in an unrelated case, admitted suffocating Pravia and stealing his cell phone, laptop and iPod. They expected to charge the suspect in Pravia's death, said Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of public information for the New York Police Department.

The man claimed Pravia approached him in Union Square park around 6 a.m. Sunday looking for drugs and the two went to his apartment in the Chelsea neighborhood. The man, who was not identified, left sometime before 11 a.m., police said.

It wasn't immediately clear if any drugs were sold or taken during the incident.

The medical examiner's office said an autopsy was inconclusive and additional tests were being performed to determine what caused Pravia's death. There was no sign of forced entry, police said.

The suspect told investigators that Pravia fell asleep and he decided to rob him, so he punched the student in the face, stuffed a bag in his mouth and wrapped the television chord around his neck, then suffocated him. Police said he sold the laptop on the street after leaving the apartment, sold the cell phone in a store and couldn't remember what he did with the iPod.

Browne said police recovered the phone where it had been sold.

Pravia, who was a sophomore at Pace University, originally was from Peru, Mass., about 10 miles from the New York border.

Pace University officials said they were saddened by the news and offered sympathy to Pravia's loved ones. Grieving friends quickly cobbled a Facebook page dedicated to the student and expressing shock over his death.