Nassau Man Gets 20 Years To Life For Girlfriend's Murder

HEMPSTEAD, NY — A Hempstead man was sentenced today to 20 years to life in prison for murdering his young girlfriend last March.

Sixto Tapia-Angeles, 28, of Hempstead, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Sept. 24, 2021. He now faces decades behind bars.

“After strangling his girlfriend to death, this defendant devised a haphazard and brutal plan to deceive police, slitting her throat and cutting his own wrist to conceal a murder and create the appearance of a double suicide attempt,” said Acting Nassau County District Attorney Joyce Smith. “His plan failed, and Tapia-Angeles now faces a life sentence for his crime.”

According to Smith, around 9:30 p.m. on March 21, 202, Tapia-Angeles called 911 and said that he was dying. When police responded to the home on Harriman Avenue in Hempstead, they found Tapia-Angeles with cuts to his wrists. His girlfriend, 19-year-old Maria Rodriguez-Perez, was dead in their bed with her throat slit.

Tapia-Angeles initially told police that Rodriguez-Perez had committed suicide. He later admitted that he killed her by choking her, and then slit her throat to make her death look like a suicide.

The cuts to Tapia-Angeles' wrists were superficial, and part of his plan to make police believe that he tried to kill himself as well.

He was arrested and charged with murder on March 22, 2020 by Nassau County police.