FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida man was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without the possibility of parole after pleading guilty to killing his pregnant wife and his father-in-law in 2018.
Cassandritz Blanc, of Fort Lauderdale, spoke briefly before he was sentenced by Broward County Judge John Murphy III.
“I would like to apologize to the victims and the victims’ family. I’m very sorry,” he said, adding that he knows his “words don’t mean anything.”
According to Blanc’s arrest report, the body of his father-in-law, Roosevelt Bernard, 68, was found in June 2018 in a field near his Hollywood home.
“Just a great person, a really big role model for our family,” said Roosevelt Bernard, Jr., the son and brother of the victims. “My sister Martine, she was like the life of the family.”
Police said Bernard’s body had burn injuries and a fire surrounded his body. A downed power line was seen nearby.
A Florida Power & Light crew and the city’s electrical inspector arrived at the scene and determined that the power line was not live and was not the source of the fire.
Detectives detected an odor of a possible accelerant, so a detection dog was brought to the scene.
Police said the dog alerted to an accelerant, leading detectives to suspect foul play in Bernard’s death.
According to the arrest report, Bernard’s family was getting ready for his son’s baby shower on June 9, 2018, when Blanc, then 22, unexpectedly showed up to his home.
Police said Blanc claimed that he was there to pick up clothes for his pregnant wife, Martine Bernard, 20.
Roosevelt Bernard’s wife told detectives that she went to take a shower a short time later, leaving her husband alone with Blanc.
She said she got out of the shower to find Blanc sitting on the couch wearing gloves and her husband missing. She said the door to her pregnant daughter’s room had been locked.
According to the arrest report, Blanc told his mother-in-law that a Hispanic man had knocked on the door and asked Roosevelt Bernard to come outside to talk.
But authorities said Roosevelt Bernard never returned home.
An autopsy determined that he died of a gunshot wound. The bullet entered below his left ear and exited through his nose, the autopsy showed.
Authorities said the Bernards’ son, who is a police officer with the Miami Gardens Police Department, noticed possible blood on an exterior door and on the floor of the bedroom that previously belonged to his sister.
Surveillance video shows a man wearing gloves at the scene of where Roosevelt Bernard’s body was found, authorities said. Police said the man was seen dumping out a large garbage bag from his trunk before a flash and large fire were seen in the area.
Detectives later questioned Blanc, who they said agreed to bring his wife to the meeting, but came alone.
Blanc claimed that Martine Bernard refused to come, and asked to leave after apparently becoming uncomfortable with the interview, the arrest report stated.
Police said they went to Blanc’s home because they were concerned for the safety of his wife.
Authorities said Blanc was seen “moving a Waste Management trash container toward the building dumpster.”
Once officers made contact with Blanc, they found his wife’s mutilated body, authorities said. Martine Bernard was six months pregnant.
Detectives believe Blanc killed her on June 4, 2018, and then kept the body inside his apartment until June 11 before moving it to the dumpster the following day.
Police said Blanc gave a “full confession,” and claimed he killed his wife “because she disrespected him.” Police said he confessed to shooting his wife before trying to dismember her.
According to the arrest report, Blanc later confessed to also killing Roosevelt Bernard.
Authorities said Blanc admitted to shooting his father-in-law in the neck and back inside his wife’s old bedroom. He said he shot him from behind because he couldn’t look into his eyes, the report stated.
“He was my hero,” said Bernard Jr. “Just looking up to him, just the things that he did, all the things that he overcame and the fact that he never opened his mouth or asked for anything in return.”
Police said Blanc confessed to locking the bedroom door and then removing the body after the family had left the home.
According to the report, he said he later poured gasoline over the body and set it on fire with a pack of matches.