Jonathan Robles admitted to beating a 63-year-old Central Park artist more than 20 times with a stick, telling police he struck her until she could no longer fight back.
Robles, 36, made the confession after turning himself in following the death of Lee Rogers, a homeless wildlife painter known among Manhattan birders for her detailed watercolors. Prosecutors revealed the admission Thursday during Robles’ virtual arraignment from a hospital, where he is undergoing a psychiatric evaluation. He was ordered remanded by Judge Sheridan Jack-Browne and charged with second-degree murder, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
“She hit me on my body with a stick, so I took the stick from her,” Robles told police, according to the criminal complaint.
“I hit her with it more than 20 times. I did it until she couldn’t hit me anymore.”
Rogers’ body was discovered Monday morning in a gazebo near the park’s boathouse at 74th Street and East Drive, three days after the Sept. 27 attack. Prosecutors said she died from blunt force trauma to her head. The stick used in the killing was found shattered and bloodied near her body.
The two had been involved in a dispute that escalated into violence, sources said.
Rogers, who also went by Francis Lee Rogers and Elise Bainbridge Hill, was the subject of the acclaimed 2007 documentary “Begging Naked,” which traced her teenage runaway journey to New York City and her subsequent struggles with prostitution and drug addiction.
Friends remembered Rogers as a gifted painter whose deep knowledge of birds distinguished her from other artists. Nature walk guide Robert DeCandido, known as “Birding Bob,” compared her to famed 1950s American folk painter Grandma Moses. DeCandido noted that Rogers regularly refilled bird feeders in the park, a habit that endeared her to local birders who collected her work.
“She was fun to talk to, she knew wildlife, she knew animal behavior,” friend Joe Lopez recalled. “It’s not like she just sat there and painted, she really knew more than an artist would about these animals. And I found that intriguing.”
Robles’ attorney, Mitchell Schuman, addressed his client’s mental state after the hearing. “It’s clear to anyone that he has a serious mental health issue and that will be addressed through the court case,” Schuman told The Post.
Robles is scheduled to return to court on Oct. 13.