Man gets 35 to 70 years for choking pregnant wife to death

Atiya Perry, 24. Courtesy of the Perry family

Two years after choking his pregnant wife to death after an argument over obedience, a Germantown man was sentenced to 35 to 70 years for the slaying.

Roysce “Yusef” Haynes, 29, was sentenced Tuesday, the Daily News reported.

Haynes was convicted in April of third-degree murder and homicide of an unborn child for strangling Atiya Perry, 24, to death, on Sunday, Sept. 9, 2012.

Evidence at trial included Haynes’ confession to homicide detectives that he murdered Perry, who was his wife under Islamic law, after arguments in part related to her family telling her not to constantly wear her Islamic garb. In Haynes’ statement he told her she was “disobedient.”

Haynes also told authorities he was suspicious of whether he was the father of Perry’s baby, and claimed to authorities that he had ordered her to leave the home and changed his locks in the days before the slaying.

Haynes claimed she showed up at his home again that Sunday, they began arguing again.

Haynes told detectives that he blacked out and choked Perry to death, then tried to administer CPR, which caused her body to spit up blood.

Blood around the mouth of the body led to an “abuse of corpse” charge against Haynes, which was dropped before trial.

The day after the slaying, Sept. 10., probation officers spotted Haynes sitting on the steps outside his home on the 800 block of E. Chelten Ave.

After speaking to him and receiving troubling answers, one officer asked if they should call 911, to which Haynes reportedly responded by nodding yes, according to court testimony.

The officers testified that they opened the door of his home and saw a body lying inside underneath a blanket.

Perry was seven weeks pregnant at the time of her death.