It would have been more appropriate for the defendant to have been charged with murder in the first degree. The autopsy report showed the victim had premortem burns on her back and buttocks, this victim like all the others, was tortured before being killed. New York Penal Code 125, Section 27, Subsection X states: "A person is guilty of murder in the first degree when the defendant acted in an especially cruel and wanton manner pursuant to a course of conduct intended to inflict and inflicting torture upon the victim prior to the victim's death."