Rocky Point man who threatened to 'unleash' massacre gets 25 years to life in fatal shooting of Justin Lee
Glenn Seejattan is led out of the Sixth Precinct for arraignment at First District Court in Central Islip on March 23, 2022. Credit: James Carbone
A Rocky Point man who boasted of plans to become a “serial killer” was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for fatally shooting another man “execution-style” during a botched marijuana deal and then leaving his body in a wooded area.
Glenn Seejattan, 30, had been convicted of second-degree murder in the January 2022 killing of Justin Lee, 34, of Centereach, at a jury trial before acting Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Richard Horowitz last month.
At sentencing Wednesday, Horowitz read a series of text messages Seejattan sent the mother of three of his children, who testified at trial that he confessed to the killing and wrote to her about wanting to kill more.
“ ‘Not even the police will be able to stop me,’ ” Horowitz read from the messages entered into evidence at trial. “That’s where you were wrong.”
What to know
- Glenn Seejattan, 30, of Rocky Point will serve 25 years to life in prison following his sentencing in Riverhead Wednesday. He was convicted of killing Justin Lee, 34, of Centereach, during a botched marijuana deal in January 2022.
- Lee's body was found 10 days after his family reported him missing half-naked near a bike trail in Rocky Point. He was shot in the head and thigh, prosecutors said
- At sentencing, Justice Richard Horowitz said Seejattan had sent text messages to the mother of three of his children confessing to the killing and threatening to do it again.
In giving him the maximum sentence, Horowitz said Seejattan led a “selfish and violent life,” and the only regret he showed was having to burn an expensive coat after the killing and for committing the crime inside his own house.
“The final quote from your texts that I will read, ‘I don’t care if I gotta do 25 years, I’m gonna make sure every day you think about the massacre I’m gonna unleash,' ” Horowitz read.
“And so you shall,” the judge concluded in sentencing him to the possibility of life behind bars.
Two jurors who attended the sentencing said they deliberated for just 30 minutes and convicted Seejattan after one vote.
Lee’s family reported him missing on Jan. 18, 2022. Ten days later, Lee’s half-naked, frozen body was discovered about a half-mile away from Seejattan’s home, where he lived with his mother on Mahogany Road in Rocky Point. The engaged father of two was shot in the head and thigh, according to his autopsy report.
“[Seejattan] ambushed [Lee] under the guise of a drug transaction,” Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Eric Aboulafia told the court. “He executed him at point-blank range with a semi-automatic rifle. After that, he discarded the body of [Lee] like trash.”
Seejattan’s defense attorney, Charles Hochbaum, said the killing was done in self-defense and said his client is planning to file an appeal.
“My client pleaded not guilty, maintained his innocence, maintained that this was in self-defense and continues to do so,” Hochbaum said. Speaking outside the courtroom, Hochbaum said his client maintains Lee was armed at the time of the killing.
Lee was last seen alive at Seejattan’s mother’s home on Mahogany Road in Rocky Point, prosecutors said.
Damaged wood moldings that matched damage found in Seejattan’s home were found within 20 feet of Lee’s body, prosecutors said. Lee’s DNA was also found on a wall in Seejattan’s home.
Alexandria Thomas, a witness at the trial and the mother of Lee’s youngest child, told Seejattan at sentencing that he “broke up a happy family.”
She said her son asks for his father every day and wonders why someone killed him.
“I tell him ‘I don’t know,’ ” Thomas told the court. “‘Some people in this world are just not nice. Full of anger and hate.’ ”
Thomas Lee of Dallas spoke of his son’s high academic achievements and shared stories of his childhood during sentencing. He said his son’s destiny was changed when his mother died of brain cancer 20 years ago.
“Through it all, I still loved him,” Lee said. “Even if I did not always love the things he did.”
A minister and pastor who works with incarcerated men and women in Texas, Lee asked his son’s killer to pray silently along with him during the sentencing and said he will love him too, even if he doesn’t love what he did to his son.
Seejattan committed the killing while out on bail for a separate indictment in which he was charged with second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and criminal possession of a firearm, the district attorney's office said. That case is pending.
Grant Parpan covers Suffolk County courts and federal courts for Newsday. A Long Island native, he joined Newsday in 2022.
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