A 44-year-old Woodhaven man who told police he was going to try to get away with murder has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing his wife and dismembering her body.
Edwin Fuentes admitted that he put his arm around Reina De Los Santos Reyes’ neck and choked her. Later he dismembered his wife’s body and put some of the parts in a suitcase later found by a group of teenagers in Forest Park.
District Attorney Brown called the sentence “a measure of justice for the victim and her family.” He commended police and prosecutors for their diligence in pursuing the case over the course of 2 years before the sentencing.
Fuentes was sentenced to a determinate term of 20 years in prison by Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory L. Lasak. The defendant pleaded guilty last month to first-degree manslaughter and tampering with physical evidence in the 2007 slaying of his wife.
The defendant admitted that between June 19, 2007 and June 22, 2007 inside of their apartment located at 78-17 88 th Road in Woodhaven he caused the death of his wife by putting his arm around her neck and choked her until she turned blue.
He also admitted that he later dismembered her body and stuffed some of her body parts in a suitcase which he placed in Forest Park. As part of his guilty plea, Fuentes showed police and prosecutors where the rest of his wife’s body was located and it has since been recovered.
Following his wife’s death and dismemberment, Fuentes called the police and reported her missing. The police officer who responded to the house noted that Fuentes had fresh scratch marks on both of his arms and a bite mark on his left hand.
Fuentes reportedly seemed very nervous and was shaking and stuttering. He explained the scratch marks as being from playing with his children. Fuentes said that he last saw his wife on June 20, 2007.
Months later in March 4 teenagers walking in Forest Park observed a suitcase which turned out to contain what appeared to be partial human remains. A human skull and various other body parts
were then identified through dental records and kinship DNA analysis as those of Reina De Los Santos Reyes.
Following an autopsy, a specific cause of death could not be determined because most of the victim’s body was not recovered. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death to be homicidal violence, type undetermined.
Witnesses in the case reported that Fuentes had been heard threatening to kill the victim in April 2007, and that, in May 2007, he had been observed choking the victim and threatening to kill her if she ever left him.
Finally, in a statement to police, Fuentes admitted that he used to be a butcher. When asked by police if he thought he was going to get away with the murder Fuentes replied: “I sure as hell am going to try.”
