Queens Man Pleads Guilty to Killing WWI Veteran In 1976: DA

QUEENS – A Queens man this week admitted to stabbing a World War I veteran in the head and robbing him of $7,000 in 1976, the Queens District Attorney said Tuesday.

Martin Motta, 75, could face up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty in the death of veteran George Clarence Seitz more than 40 years ago, said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.

Seitz, 81 when he died, was last seen walking to get a haircut at a barbershop where Motta used to work on Dec. 10, 1976, prosecutors said.

Human remains found in a backyard in Richmond Hill decades later, in 2019, were later confirmed by a laboratory to be Seitz's, according to prosecutors.

Motta, of Jamaica, was arrested in 2021 and pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Queens Criminal Court Monday, according to Katz and court records.

“This long-cold case marks the first successful application in New York City of forensic genetic genealogy,” said Katz referring to the law enforcement's use of DNA analysis and traditional genealogy research to investigate unsolved crimes.

A judge is scheduled to sentence Motta on Nov. 7, according to prosecutors.