Man who killed a rival and hid his body in a trash can on the Schuylkill River trail is sentenced to prison

A Norristown man pleaded guilty Friday to beating a man to death with a baseball bat and hiding his body in a trash can along the Schuylkill River trail.

Felix Santos-Colon, 46, was sentenced to 22½ to 45 years in state prison for the Nov. 4 killing of Oscar Travezio-Tercero, 44.

The Puerto Rico native entered a guilty plea to third-degree murder and said he killed the victim during an argument.

Afterward, he said, he panicked and, unsure of how to hide the body, left it on a secluded section of the nearby trail.

Days later, a passerby found the body in the trash can and called police.

Assistant District Attorney Gwendolyn Kull described the attack as an ambush — Travezio-Tercero had his back to Santos-Colon, she said, when he struck him in the back of the head three times with the baseball bat.

Both men were homeless and had been sleeping at a Norristown car wash, the prosecutor said. Santos-Colon had “disdain” for the victim, according to Kull, and they had been feuding over the politics within the unhoused community, where Santos-Colon saw himself as a leader.

“In a way, Santos-Colon felt that his territory was being threatened by Oscar,” Kull said. “He did not like the impact that Oscar had on what he perceived as his territory in this homeless community in Norristown.”

Travezio-Tercero had previously threatened Santos-Colon. But Santos-Colon’s attorney said his client did not act in self defense.

“It was definitely a mental anguish case,” said Benjamin Cooper. “And I don’t think he had intent or desire to say ‘Well, I’m just gonna kill somebody.’”

Cooper said his client had a traumatic childhood and suffers from mental-health issues including depression and anxiety. At the time of the killing, Santos-Colon was “heavily intoxicated,” according to Cooper.

Cooper said Santos-Colon has expressed remorse for his actions.

Investigators wrote in court filings that Santos-Colon went to his daughter’s home in Norristown on the night of the killing and told her that he had “finished someone” and was sorry. Hours later, he told his daughter he would rather die than go to jail.

During a later interview with police, Santos-Colon said he had planned to bury Travezio-Tercero in a cemetery near the Schuylkill River Trail, but hid the body in a trash can instead since there were too many passersby.

In a letter read in court Friday by Kull, Travezio-Tercero’s wife, Maribel Cruz Contreras-Tercero, described him as a hardworking man whose death had left her and their three children struggling to make ends meet in Mexico.

“He went to pursue the American dream to provide a better life for our children, and he only found an unjust death at the hands of Felix Santos-Colon,” she said.