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The Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday, June 8 that 23-year-old Darren Mansfield was sentenced to three decades behind bars for the April 2021 death of Dix Hill resident Frania Espinal.
Mansfield, who is from Bay Shore, was first arrested on November 2, 2020, for possessing a loaded handgun and ammunition from his mother, according to his guilty plea and the DA’s investigation. He was released two days later.
Just over two weeks after his first arrest, on November 22, Mansfield went on a date with his first strangulation victim, who remains unnamed.
While the two were sitting in a car, Mansfield reached over and put the woman in a headlock so strong that blood vessels in both of her eyes broke, and her face severely swelled.
The first victim escaped and Mansfield was again arrested, and again was released, despite the open gun felony case.
In April 2021, the family of Espinal, who was dating Mansfield at the time, reported her missing.
Investigation revealed that the last time Espinal was seen alive was a video recording showing her entering Mansfield’s Bay Shore apartment.
Police arrested Mansfield and investigated his home after he made a comment to a friend confessing to strangling someone and keeping their body in his apartment.
Espinal’s body was found wrapped in a tarp in Mansfield’s bedroom. Her death was ruled as a homicide with the cause of death being strangulation, and she had injuries including blunt force trauma to the head, multiple hemorrhages to her neck, and more.
Indictments for the gun felony and first strangulation case were not made until after Espinal’s death.
On Wednesday, March 29, Mansfield pleaded guilty to:
- First-degree manslaughter;
- Second-degree strangulation; and
- Second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
In a statement calling Mansfield’s case “deplorable,” District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said, “While I am District Attorney, we will not allow dangerous defendants to remain at liberty where they can harm the public.”
“How dangerous does an individual have to be before they are held in on bail? This defendant deserves every year of his prison sentence.”
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