Nicolas Coirazza was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison for the fatal stabbing of a Cresskill woman in June 2020 and for attempting to dump her body in Overpeck Park with the aid of her teenage daughter.
Coirazza, a Lodi resident, was also sentenced to eight years for desecration. The sentences will run concurrently. Coirazza had previously pled guilty, and his attorney had asked that he be given a shorter 35-year sentence.
Divna Rosasco was reported missing just before midnight on June 15, 2020. She was found weighed down in the waters of Overpeck Creek in an attempt to hide her body. She had been stabbed 54 times, 34 of those in the head. She also had neck wounds as well as defensive wounds.
Rosasco was found after a Bergen County sheriff’s officer was conducting a regular check of the county park just before 2 a.m. and discovered Rosasco’s abandoned car. When the officer checked the car, it appeared someone had tried to conceal who owned it, and the officer realized something was off.
A K-9 unit brought police from the car to the creek, where Rosasco was discovered wrapped in a bedsheet, with a plastic bag wrapped around her head and her body weighed down with cinderblocks.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, Coirazza told police he was at a girl’s Cresskill home around 8:30 a.m. when Rosasco arrived, unaware he was there, according to the affidavit. Coirazza reportedly hid in the house while an argument ensued between the girl and Rosasco.
Coirazza and the teen were picked up by police not long after in a local hotel parking lot, attempting to catch an Uber.
Police said Coirazza knew the family and was visiting the teenager at her Cresskill home. Coirazza hid in the home as an argument broke out between Rosasco and the girl, who was kicked out of the house into the backyard.
At some point during Rosasco’s argument with the juvenile, Coirazza intervened, grabbed a pink-colored knife from the girl’s bedroom and pushed Rosasco down the stairs, court documents say.
“He then mounted her and stabbed her numerous times in the neck, head and back with the pink knife,” the affidavit states.
Coirazza rejected a plea offer in September and a tentative trial date had been scheduled for January. The prosecution offered Coirazza 45 years to plead guilty to murder, desecration and employing a juvenile in a commission of a crime. The 45 years would run concurrently with the 10 years for desecration and employing a juvenile in a commission of a crime respectively.
At the September hearing, Coirazza’s attorney, Ron Bar-Nadav, attempted to have some of his client’s statements to police suppressed. Bar-Nadav argued that Coirazza hadn’t slept in two days and he was redirected every time he mentioned retaining an attorney.