Man Pleads Guilty To Fatally Stabbing Wife In Jackson Heights: DA

QUEENS — A 44-year-old man pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his wife during an argument inside their apartment in Jackson Heights nearly three years ago, prosecutors said.

Carlos Mendoza is expected to be sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for murdering his 45-year-old wife, Yaquelin Collado, on July 3, 2020, on 34th Road, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

The couple was fighting that morning when Collado's 19-year-old daughter tried to intervene and saw Mendoza stab her mother in the chest, neck, and torso repeatedly, Katz said.

The teenager threw several items at him and pushed him, but Mendoza kept stabbing Collado until the teen's mother told her daughter to leave, the district attorney said.

Collado's daughter started banging on neighbors' doors asking for help, and then called her boyfriend and the police, prosecutors said.

Authorities found Collado on the floor with a kitchen knife nearby, while Mendoza had stabbed himself several times in the abdomen, Katz said.

The mother died after sustaining 27 knife wounds, the district attorney said.