Cassandritz Blanc (left) murdered his pregnant wife, Martine Bernard (right), and her father, Roosevelt Bernard. (Mugshot of Blanc: Broward County Sheriff’s Office; image of Martine Bernard: Fort Lauderdale Police Department)
A Florida man was sentenced on Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering his pregnant wife and her father.
Cassandritz Blanc, 27, confessed to Fort Lauderdale police, telling them that he killed Martine Bernard, 20, because she, in the words of the affidavit, “disrespected him.” He then hunted down her father Roosevelt Bernard, 68, but could not bring himself to murder the man face-to-face, police said.
“He stated that he shot the victim from behind because he was not able to look into his eyes,” officers wrote.
Bernard was six months pregnant when she died on June 4, 2018. Prosecutors said Blanc admitted that he knew she was having a baby, according to WTVJ.
Roosevelt Bernard was found dead and burned near the family home. Cops tried to get in touch with Martine Bernard, but could not find her.
“She was missing. She was pregnant,” Hollywood police Detective Ryan Rillo testified at an Aug. 4 hearing, according to the outlet. “The family had not had voice contact with her for some time, only text contact, which they felt was odd.”
Investigators considered Blanc a suspect in the disappearance. In light of Blanc’s change of plea hearing on Tuesday, they were right.
He killed his wife on June 4, 2018, because she “disrespected him,” he said in his confession to police, according to documents. Then five days later on June 9, he traveled over to her parents’ home in order to kill Roosevelt Bernard.
Blanc would later tell officers that while his mother-in-law was showering, he followed Roosevelt Bernard into Martine’s old bedroom.
After fatally shooting Roosevelt Bernard in the back, officers said Blanc “then exited, locked and discarded the keys to the bedroom.”
The mother-in-law told police she returned from the shower to find her husband gone and Blanc, who was wearing gloves, sitting on the couch.
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The defendant told her a story about a Hispanic man knocking on the door and asking her husband to step outside to talk. Roosevelt never returned.
Blanc later confessed he lied about there being a Hispanic man. He told police he came back to the home to move his father-in-law’s body to a nearby field using a trash can and he set fire to the remains using gasoline and matches.
As for Martine Bernard’s body, Blanc left her in her apartment for a week, authorities said, according to WSVN.
Officers were suspicious of Blanc during the missing person case and kept an eye on him. One night, Rillo and another detective were watching when Blanc, carrying a flashlight, walked up to their unmarked patrol car.
“He stops. He comes back to my car, takes a flashlight out and he starts looking in my car,” Rillo reportedly said. “He keeps going back and forth so we are for lack of a better term playing ring-around-the-rosey in my car.”
Authorities say that later that night, Blanc dragged Martine Bernard’s body in a trash container and left it by the dumpster in an alleyway of the apartment complex.
According to his confession, Blanc attempted to dismember her body to make it easier to dispose of, but he failed to remove any body parts, documents stated.
Prosecutors announced that Blanc received three life terms for two counts of murder in the first degree and one count of murder in the first degree of an unborn child. He also received two 15 year-terms for two counts of abuse of a dead body.
“After extensive discussions with the family of the victims, who stated they wanted this outcome and the finality it provides to them, prosecutors agreed to enter into this plea agreement,” Broward State Attorney’s Public Information Officer Paula McMahon said in a statement obtained by Law&Crime.
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