An Elmhurst man last week was arraigned on charges in the stabbing death of his wife in their basement apartment, and allegedly writing a suicide note in her name, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
Luis Paguay, 47, was arraigned on a criminal complaint charging him with second-degree murder, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with evidence. Some time between the night of Dec. 3 and just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, according to the complaint, Paguay stabbed his wife, Maria, 39, multiple times in the neck and chest with a large kitchen knife inside their 50th Avenue apartment.
Following the murder, Paguay allegedly wrote a note in his wife’s name, claiming that her death was a suicide. He then went to work at his job at a restaurant in Whitestone, where surveillance footage shows what appears to be Paguay washing his blood-stained shoes in a sink.
Maria Paguay’s body was discovered around 6 p.m. on Dec. 4 by her 19-year-old son who had just come home from school.
Brown called the case “a devastating example of the horrors of domestic abuse.”
If convicted, Paguay faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
