Police caught him in the act four years ago setting on fire the corpse of a man he just pumped five bullets into, mercilessly shooting his victim in the head and neck.
Now, a Shirley man has pleaded guilty to the grisly killing and attempted coverup of his crime.
Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney announced that 24-year-old Peter Peter Pendzinski entered a guilty plea to Second Degree Murder charges.
According to police, hot lead flew on a cold night in December of 2020, when Pendzinski invited his soon to be murder victim for a drive in his car.
That is when prosecutors said Pendzinski shot 21-year-old Bay Shore resident Nathanael Rodriguez five times, striking the victim in the head and neck.
Prosecutors believe Pendzinski then drove Rodriguez’s lifeless body to his own Shirley home, where he doused the corpse in gasoline, covered it in leaves, and set it on fire. At the time, a neighbor called 9-1-1 when they noticed heavy smoke coming from Pendzinski’s home.
Suffolk County Police Officers arrived within minutes, and saw the admitted killer shoveling leaves into what then became a raging fire.
While alert police tried entering Pendzinski’s home, they spotted him attempting to move Rodriguez’s body to another spot in the backyard. Police quickly cuffed him and placed him under arrest.
“This defendant brutally murdered Nathanael Rodriguez by shooting him in the head and neck and attempted to cover up his crimes by desecrating the victim’s body by setting it on fire. Thanks to the quick thinking of the Suffolk County first responders on scene, the defendant’s plan to cover up his crime was quickly foiled. This defendant’s conduct in the commission of this murder warrants a lengthy prison time, which we will seek at the sentence,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Tierney.
The defendant came clean to the killing in his own statements during his plea allocution, which is the legal process when a guilty plea is offered, accepted, and processed.
Prosecutors believe they had an airtight case against Pendzinski from the start. Amongst the forensic evidence found at the scene by police was the shattered passenger side window of Pendzinski’s Mercedes Benz, a saw, pair of pliers, bloody car floor matts in his driveway that contained the victim’s DNA. a Smith and Wesson gun, and a can of gasoline.
Pendzinski pleaded guilty before Supreme Court Justice Richard Ambro, to one count of Murder in the Second Degree, a Class A violent felony, and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon, Class C felonies.
The guilty plea avoids a lengthy trial. The next time Pendzinski is scheduled to be back in court is May 17th, 2024, when he is expected to be slapped with a sentence of 18 years in prison.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Melissa Grier of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, and the investigation was conducted by Detective Jeffrey Bottari of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Unit.