""This defendant brutally attacked Zoraida Leo after a rent dispute and then callously left her to die on the floor of her own home," Queens DA Melinda Katz said. "No family should endure the loss of a loved one in such a cruel manner. We cannot undo this egregious harm, but with this sentence we have helped secure justice for Ms. Leo's family.""
""It was a terrible scene," Leo's neighbor and friend Eva Rivera told the Daily News at the time of the incident. "He was screaming, 'My mom was killed!'""
""She was an incredibly nice lady," Rivera said of Leo. "She never had any trouble with anybody. It was a terrible tragedy.""
Davi Vidal, 21, was sentenced to 22 years in prison plus five years of post-release supervision for the strangulation death of his 55-year-old landlord, Zoraida Leo. The attack followed a rent dispute on Dec. 4, 2023, in East Elmhurst; Leo's body was found near a bathroom entryway on Dec. 5 with facial scratches. An autopsy by the New York City medical examiner determined the cause of death as strangulation. Prosecutors said Vidal used his hands and a cord from an iron to strangle the victim. Vidal, who had lived in the building's attic apartment for about two years, was arrested the same day. The sentence was imposed by Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant. Neighbors described the scene as terrible and remembered Leo as an incredibly nice, trouble-free neighbor.
Read at New York Daily News
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