Daily News from New York, New York • 6

Say strangle suspect hid body i I 'i tJ. By JORGE FITZ -GIBBON and VIRGINIA BREEN News Stit rti ters A Bronx ex-con accused of strangling his 8-year-old stepson drove to Manhattan to buy druas after hiding the slain boy's body in a closet, prosecutors charged yesterday. Robert Rosa, 30. was arraigned yesterday in Bronx Criminal Court on second-de-uree murder and manslaughter charges stemming from the Saturday slaying of third-grader Eduardo Rosa at Kingsbrid.ge's Bailey Houses. The charge could be elevated to first-degree murder, making it a potential capital punishment case, prosecutors said.

In written and video-taped statements. Rosa admitted he killed Eduardo. stashed his body in a closet, "then took some friends to Manhattan to buy drugs." Assistant District Attorney Sandra Mcllveen said. Rosa then allegedly drove to ewark Airport to pick up his wife. Gina, who had flown back from a funeral.

When Gina Rosa left the apartment to go to the 52nd Precinct stationhouse and report the boy missing, her husband took the body from the closet and dumped it on the roof, where police found it later, officials said. I have to go by is the statements the defendant made." said Bronx Criminal Court Judge John Barone as he glared at Robert Rosa, who sat impassively in a Yankees jersey and jeans. "If it's true. God help you, sir." Barone said. Robert Rosa, who has a lengthy criminal record, allegedly erupted in a frenzy of violence after Eduardo.

who was known as Eddie, refused to clean a cat-litter box and defiantly said his stepfather was not his "natural Mcllveen said Rosa "could not stop hitting him. Eddie fell to the floor and the defendant kept punching him and there were some gagging sounds." That's when Rosa allegedly used sneaker laces and plastic wrap to strangle his stepson, the prosecutor said. While Rosa was being arraigned yesterday, his wife made funeral arrangements, and Eduardo's shocked classmates returned to Public School 310. "'The kids were just sitting in their desks like little mummies." said Sol Sierra, whose daughter Nadine was in the same class as Eduardo. daughter didn't sleep all night, and she asked me.

"Why didn't that man just send Eddie to his Sierra said. A neighbor and family friend, Sandi Eaddy, said a 1 -AJ. X. KEN MURRAY DAILY NEWS FRIENDS and neighbors of Eduardo Rosa grieve outside his home on Heath Ave. in the Bronx yesterday, suspicious Gina Rosa confronted her husband before reporting her son missing.

"Gina asked him flat out, 'Bobby, did you hurt said Eaddy. who was with the couple before accompanying Gina to the stationhouse. "Bobby looked straight at her and said. 'How could you even think that I could do Added Eaddy: "A real per formance. The whole time he knew he did it." The Rev.

David Casella, pastor of Our Lady of Angels Church, where Eduardo was preparing for his First Holy Communion, remembered the boy for "his remarkable sense of joy," and perfect attendance at classes and Sunday Mass." "He was what I call a beamer, someone whose smile lights up everything around him," Casella said. "In class, they were talking about Easter, and he shot up and said, 'It's gonna be great this year it's my He would've been 9." Casella will say the funeral Mass for Eduardo on Friday morning. A wake for the little boy will be held tomorrow and Thursday, but the coffin will be closed because of his injuries. Last 2 major Times Sq. Stop Paying for Money Orders sites in so By LEO STANDORA 9, Do you buy money orders regularly? Then Apple Bank's BasicValue Checking is perfect for you.

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and Reuters Holdings PLC. The big attractions, they say, are tax breaks and the city's campaign to clean up Times Square. Forest City Enterprises Inc. is building a $70 million entertainment and shopping complex on 42nd while Disney recently opened the refurbished New Amsterdam Theater, home of the hit show "The Lion King." Across the street are the recently opened New Victory Theater and the Ford Center for the Performing Arts. Disney's ABC Inc.

television broadcasting unit also plans to open a new studio on Times Square in hopes the neon signs and crowds will draw more viewers to its "Good Morning America" show. City officials have hailed high-rise development in Times Square as the i dawning of a new era for the Great White Way, though some community i activists have warned that the bus-tling area could become overi-l whelmed by skyscrapers. Da- News Sla Wnrer A financial and real estate alliance led by Boston Properties the real estate arm of Daily News Chairman and Co-Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman's business empire has reached an agreement in principle to buy the last two major development sites in the reborn Times Square area. The developers plan to build two high-rise office towers with more than 2 million square feet combined on the prime midtown tracts. Sources close to the negotiations said the deal with Prudential Insurance Co.

estimated to be worth in excess of S300 million likely will be finalized by summer. Construction is scheduled to begin next year after small buildings on the sites one at 42nd St. and Seventh the other bounded by Seventh Broadway, 41st and 42nd Sts. are razed. A 40-story office tower is scheduled to rise at the southwest corner of 42nd St.

and Seventh currently the home of a Disney store. The store is expected to reopen in the new building. A 49-story building is planned for the second site, which now houses Hansen's Times Square Brewery- The Blackstone Group, a high-powered player in assets management and real estate, and Park Tower Realty, a major New York developer, joined Boston Proper V. 1 1 a jgri-l-'I IJDIfcfeL 13 To find out more or for a branch location nearest you, call 800-722-6888. "Limited to the first eigiit checks pjid per month; clurges incurred for jddition.il checks pjid monthly.

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