The man accused of beating his girlfriend to death in front of their toddler at a motel

Published by RawNews1st

The man accused of beating his girlfriend to death in front of their toddler at a motel told police they had fought but that she was alive and sitting in the bathtub when he left the room.

On November 2, 2025 at about 4:30 p.m., police say officers were called after cleaning staff at the Days Inn in found the body of 32-year-old Roseberline Philippe in the tub in Room 230 on Valley Avenue in Elmsford, New York.

Police tracked 32-year-old Justin Bartley’s car to the Bronx home of the mother of another of his children. Members of the Westchester District Attorney’s Office and the FBI Westchester Safe Streets Task Force spoke with him in a hallway there at 8:30 p.m. and he told them he had hit Philippe and she had hit him.

He said he had also punched a wall in the motel room and that blood on his face was from a pimple.

When task force members and Elmsford detectives interviewed him two hours later at police headquarters he told them he had gotten very mad and had punched and kicked the wall and was bleeding from his hands.

He claimed Philippe had gotten into a fight with her family the day before at their White Plains apartment where she and the 2-year-old boy lived and that she was thrown out. In the motel room, Bartley allegedly said, Philippe got into the tub and didn’t want him to leave and that she was alive and sitting in the tub when he left.

Video surveillance showed Bartley leaving with the boy a short time before officers arrived.

Bartley was arrested and charged with second-degree murder.

On December 3, Bartley was indicted on murder and endangering the welfare of a child.

During a brief court appearance, the attorney for Bartley plead not guilty on his behalf.