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Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark announced that Yonkers resident Victor Mateo, age 65, a former pastor at the Christian Congregation The Redeemer Church in the Bronx, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Wednesday, Nov. 17.
Clark said that on the morning of Oct. 3, 2019, Mateo parked his vehicle near the home of his estranged wife, Noelia Mateo, age 58, on Ellsworth Avenue in Throgs Neck.
As she left her house to drive her grandchildren to school, Mateo proceeded to run her over with his vehicle, and as Noelia Mateo hid under the car, he ran her over with it and hacked her with a machete.
Noelia Mateo was transported to Jacobi Medical Center where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
At the time of the attack, the grandchildren were 11 and 9 years old.
Mateo attempted to flee the area in that same vehicle, but he was tracked down and arrested on Oct. 10, 2019, in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
When he returns to court in January 2022, Clark said that Mateo will be sentenced to 23 years in prison, followed by five years post-release supervision. Orders of Protection were also issued for the two grandchildren.
“(Mateo) and his wife had been estranged for approximately a month when he mercilessly killed her in front of her two young grandchildren and bystanders in broad daylight,” Clark said.
“The victim’s grandchildren not only had to deal with the loss of their grandmother, but also with immense trauma after witnessing such cruel events.
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