A Jackson Heights man was sentenced to 18 years to life for the murder of his wife in front of her daughter in 2020. (File photo by Lloyd Mitchell)
May 11, 2023 By Bill Parry
A Jackson Heights man on May 11 was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for stabbing his wife to death in front of her daughter in July 2020.
Carmelo Medondoza, 44, of 34th Road, pleaded guilty last month to murder in the second degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis.
According to the charges, in the early morning of July 3, 2020, Mendoza argued with his wife, Yaquelin Collado, 45, in their bedroom. The fight continued into a hallway and eventually into the kitchen. After hearing her mother’s screams, the victim’s 19-year-old daughter immediately rushed toward the couple and saw Mendoza stab her mother repeatedly in the chest, neck and torso.
The young woman attempted to stop Mendoza by throwing items at him and tried to push him off her mother. Mendoza fell to the floor and got back up and continued to stab Collado. The victim said to her daughter in Spanish, “I’m dying, get out of here,” according to the charges. The daughter, who injured her leg as she tried to intervene, ran out of the apartment and began banging on her neighbors’ doors, screaming for help. She then called her boyfriend and 911.
When police from the 115th Precinct in Jackson Heights arrived on the scene and entered the apartment, they discovered Mendoza lying on top of Collado, who was in a pool of blood with a kitchen knife nearby, the charges state. Mendoza had stabbed himself numerous times in the abdomen.
EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed Collado and Mendoza to Elmhurst Hospital Center where, as a result of approximately 27 knife wounds, Collado was pronounced dead. The defendant was treated for self-inflicted injuries.
“This man was responsible for a brutal murder, which he carried out in front of the victim’s teen-age daughter,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “I hope the grieving family finds a measure of solace in knowing he will be going to prison for a long time.”
Justice Margulis imposed an indeterminate sentence of 18 years to life imprisonment.
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