Convicted murderer Gerald killed his girlfriend and is now charged with the 2019 murder of his "lifetime" friend in Long Island New York
Posted: Sun Sep 28, 2025 1:55 pm
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NEW YORK CITY - A Pennsylvania man already serving decades in prison for killing his girlfriend in 2019 has been indicted in New York for murder after allegedly shooting a longtime friend and disposing of the body on Long Island.
Gerald Neal, 50, was arrested in Queens in June 2019, just days after 40-year-old Terrance Mitchell was allegedly seen in Brooklyn entering the passenger side of a Honda associated with Neal.
Mitchell, who prosecutors describe as “a lifelong friend of Neal’s,” was found dead by a sanitation worker in a wooded section of Spruce Lane in Wyandanch, on May 30, 2019. Suffolk County authorities said he appeared to be wearing the same clothing he was when he was seen getting into Neal’s vehicle.
An autopsy later concluded that Mitchell had been shot multiple times, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Medical examiners recovered a .22-caliber bullet from the victim’s body.
Neal was arrested by the NYPD on June 5 of that year while driving in Queens. While searching his vehicle, officers allegedly found blood stains in the vehicle, a .22-caliber pistol in the back seat and a spent .22 casing on the driver’s side floor.
Two days after Mitchell’s body was found on Long Island, a homeowner in Monroe County, Pa., discovered the body of Neal’s girlfriend, Jeanette Sancho, in a small patch of woods in Middle Smithfield Township, about 80 miles west of New York City.
Sancho, a 41-year-old mother of two, “was found face down and partially naked,” according to Monroe County District Attorney Mike Mancuso.
Sancho died from a single gunshot to the temple, and a .22-caliber bullet was recovered during the autopsy, Mancuso said.
At the time of the shooting, Neal was scheduled to begin a prison term for a drug trafficking charge in Virginia. But instead of turning himself in, he went on the run, officials said.
Earlier this year, Neal pleaded guilty to third-degree murder for the death of Sancho and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
On Monday, he was arraigned in Suffolk County Supreme Court on an indictment charging him with second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the killing of Mitchell, prosecutors said Friday. He pleaded not guilty, according to online court records.
Neal was ordered held without bail and is due back in court on Oct. 21. He faces 25 years to life if convicted on the top charge.
In addition to his Pennsylvania sentence and the New York indictment, Neal still awaits a 20-year prison term in Virginia.
https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/09/27/ ... ng-friend/