A Yonkers man pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2019 killing of his estranged wife in front of her grandchildren, the Bronx DA said Thursday.
The plea comes just over two years after Victor Mateo ran over his estranged wife with a car and then stabbed her to death with a machete, according to the District Attorney Darcel Clark.
The Yonkers man, a former pastor in the Bronx, and his wife, Noelia Mateo, had been estranged for about a month when he “mercilessly killed her in front of her two young grandchildren and bystanders” on Oct. 3, 2019, Clark said.ADVERTISING
Mateo, now 65, was arrested in 2019 and arraigned on charges including first degree manslaughter, second degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon and endangering the welfare of a child.
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After pleading guilty to the manslaughter charge, the DA said Mateo will be sentenced on Jan. 5 to 23 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision. Also included are final orders of protection for the victim’s two grandkids who witnessed the killing at just nine and 11 years old.
“The victim’s grandchildren not only had to deal with the loss of their grandmother, but also immense trauma after witnessing such cruel events,” Clark said.
According to officials, on the morning of the attack, Mateo parked his vehicle near his estranged wife’s Ellsworth Avenue home in the Throgs Neck section of the Bronx and waited until she was leaving the house to drive her grandkids to school.
He then struck Noelia Mateo, 58, with his vehicle, authorities said.
After the injured woman hid underneath her car, Mateo got into that vehicle and ran her over with her own car, according to the DA.
He then hacked her with a machete before fleeing the scene in the victim’s car, officials said. She later died at the hospital.
Mateo was arrested in Pennsylvania on Oct. 10 after a weeklong search.
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