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Eduardo Vega, age 58, of Islip Terrace, was sentenced to 25 years behind bars in Suffolk County Court on Thursday, Oct. 17, in the death of 34-year-old Roshane McLaren.
Prosecutors said Vega was living with his wife, Tanya Denis, along with her two daughters and their husbands when Vega got into an argument with McLaren in their backyard on Sept. 27, 2022.
The altercation escalated when Vega threw a lawn chair at the man and threatened to hit him with a baseball bat. When the daughters tried to intervene, Vega punched one of them in the face.
The victim eventually deescalated the situation and Vega left the home on foot. While he was gone, McLaren learned that Vega had struck his wife during the altercation.
When Vega returned home a short time later, McLaren confronted him in their driveway for hitting his wife. Vega then stabbed him twice in the chest, piercing his left lung, heart, diaphragm, and stomach.
Vega immediately fled following the attack. Denis tracked him down in her car before giving him money and taking him to the Brentwood train station, where he fled to Brooklyn, prosecutors said.
McLaren was later pronounced dead at South Shore University Hospital.
Vega remained on the lam for several days before surrendering to Suffolk County Police on Oct. 2, 2022. He pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on Friday, Sept. 13.
Denis pleaded guilty to hindering prosecution on Wednesday, Sept. 4, and is awaiting sentencing.
“There is absolutely no justification for this defendant’s violent actions,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “The brutal manner in which he chose to attack and kill Mr. McLaren deserves an equally serious prison sentence.”
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