Man Gets 20 Years For Killing Woman In Hudson County

HUDSON COUNTY, NJ — A West New York man was sentenced to 20 years in state prison on Tuesday for causing the death of a 32-year-old woman in West New York in 2019.

Edwin Orlando Velasco-Salazar, 24, had pleaded guilty in 2021 to first-degree aggravated manslaughter in the death of Irma Doris Contreras, the office of Hudson County Prosecutor Esther Suarez said.

Prosecutors say that on Nov. 1, 2019, around 3:41 a.m., Velasco-Salazar and Contreras entered the vestibule of 214 63rd St. together and then Velasco-Salazar walked out alone, according to an investigation by the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office Homicide Unit and West New York Police Department.

Three people found the unconscious woman, later identified as Contreras, in the doorway several minutes later.

West New York Police Officers went to the building and found Contreras in the doorway with no pulse.

Contreras was taken to Hackensack Meridian Health Palisades Medical Center where she was pronounced dead at 4:20 a.m.

The Regional Medical Examiner’s Office determined the cause of death to be compression of neck and the manner of death to be a homicide.

Velasco-Salazar was later arrested and charged.

Judge Vincent J. Militello sentenced Edwin Orlando on Tuesday. His sentence is subject to the No Early Release Act.

The Prosecutor's Office did not comment when asked whether the two knew each other before.

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