Bronx man charged with murder month after girlfriend’s decomposing corpse discovered

Anthony Portis is accused of killing of 22-year-old Dominique Ben-David inside their home on E. 187th St. near Belmont Ave. Her body was discovered on April 11.

A Bronx man was charged with murder Thursday, nearly a month after his girlfriend’s decomposing remains were found inside the apartment the couple shared with another of the suspect’s love interests.

Anthony Portis is accused of killing 22-year-old Dominique Ben-David inside their home on E. 187th St. near Belmont Ave. in Belmont. Her body was discovered on April 11.

The day before the grisly discovery, Portis, 30, was arrested on charges of violating an order of protection five weeks earlier when he allegedly punched, bit and kicked the mother of his child inside the same apartment where Ben-David’s corpse was discovered.

Neighbors said Portis had shared the apartment with both women and his child for about six tumultuous months.

Cops showed up at the building on April 11 to interview the estranged girlfriend he was accused of beating but she and the child had moved out to a shelter weeks before to avoid Portis, neighbors said.

Meanwhile, a foul smell had started emanating from the apartment — along with an eerie silence that puzzled neighbors who were used to the sounds of fighting, shouting and dishes smashing.

When cops looking for the domestic violence victim gained entrance to the apartment, they found Ben-David’s corpse instead. Her death was deemed a homicide on April 24, although the body was so badly decomposed the city medical examiner wasn’t immediately able to determine how she was killed.

Dominique Ben-David is pictured in an undated photo. (Obtained by New York Daily News)

The same day Ben-David’s body was discovered, Portis was arraigned on the domestic violence charges involving the other woman in Bronx Criminal Court.

He was ordered held without bail because he had earlier failed to show up to a court date to be sentenced in a bizarre robbery conviction where Ben-David was allegedly his accomplice — and the victim was Ben-David’s mother.

On Thursday, Portis, already in custody at the Manhattan Detention Complex over his other cases, was slapped with charges of murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon. His arraignment was pending on the new charges in Bronx Criminal Court.

Cops responding to an unrelated April 11 incident inside the E. 187th St. building (pictured) near Belmont Ave. discovered victim Dominique Ben-David, 22, after smelling a foul odor coming from her residence around 2 a.m.

His prior robbery conviction stemmed from an April 2018 incident in which he allegedly stole $200 cash and jewelry from Ben-David’s mother inside the victim’s Queens apartment.

A criminal complaint indicated that the daughter told her mother Portis was carrying a gun — and that Ben-David threatened to slug her mother.

“I didn’t want it to come this,” Ben-David told cops after her February 2019 arrest in the case, according to the complaint. "We were really being threatened and I knew she had money.”

At the time of her death, Ben-David was due back in court June 25 on the robbery and burglary charges.

But her mother had long forgiven her, calling her daughter a young woman with “a heart of gold.”

"My daughter was beautiful and creative,” the mom, Shana Ben-David, 49, told the Daily News shortly after her daughter’s body was discovered. “She was everything. She drew, she danced, she sang. She was an artist. My daughter was sweet.”

The mother was still deep in grief when she learned of the charges against Portis Thursday.

“I’m just sick with it,” she said. “I’m relieved that he was charged.”