Central Park painter murder suspect: ‘I hit her more than 20 times, until she could no longer hit me’

Jonathan Robles, 36, appeared virtually on Thursday, 1 October 2026, before Manhattan Criminal Court, where prosecutors revealed for the first time the details of his confession to the brutal murder of Central Park’s well-known bird painter. As the New York Post reports, Robles had told police that the artist had first hit him with a stick, but that he then took it from her hands and beat her mercilessly: “I hit her more than 20 times — I did it until she could no longer hit me.”

Robles, who appeared at the hearing from the hospital where he is expected to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, is charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon. He surrendered to Central Park police shortly after the incident and had admitted from the start that he had beaten the artist. According to the authorities, he also had two previous non-violent arrests in New York.

The victim, 63-year-old Lee Rogers — known as Francis Lee Rogers, also under the name Elise Bainbridge Hill — was found dead on the morning of Sunday, 27 September 2026, in a wooden gazebo near East Drive and East 74th Street, close to the park’s boathouse. The New York Police Department (NYPD) responded to a 911 call at around 9:43 a.m. and pronounced her dead at the scene. The medical examiner found that she had died from blunt-force blows to the head. A broken, bloodied stick was found near the body, while initial reports of a knife were later withdrawn by investigators.

Rogers was homeless and for about 30 years had painted Central Park’s birds in watercolour, becoming a beloved figure in the park. Nature walk leader Robert DeCandido, known as “Birding Bob”, had called her the “Grandma Moses of Central Park”. She kept bird feeders in the Ramble area, while birdwatchers and passers-by bought her works. Her life was documented in the acclaimed 2007 film “Begging Naked”.