Day Laborer Gets Prison Sentence For Socialite's Death

NORTH SALEM, NY — The day laborer who pleaded guilty to killing a Westchester socialite could be spending the rest of his life in prison. Westchester County District Anthony A. Scarpino Jr. said Esdras Marroquin Gomez, 34, was sentenced Thursday to 22 years to life in prison for the 2015 murder of Lois Elizabeth Colley, 83, of North Salem.

Marroquin Gomez, who is known as Victor, pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder, a felony.

In court, Colley's family members, son Bryan Colley and granddaughter Christine Colley, told Westchester County Court Judge George Fufidio how the Colley's murder affected them.

According to a spokeswoman for the DA, Bryan Colley asked the court to keep the defendant in jail "until the day he dies."

A letter from Colley's husband — Eugene Colley — which was sent to the judge was also read in court.

Colley's body was discovered lying in a pool of blood in her home's laundry room Nov. 9, 2015. State police said she died of blunt force trauma.

A caretaker, who found the body, contacted the police. There were no signs of forced entry and no valuables were thought to have been taken.

During the initial investigation, state police said they found what appeared to be a pin from a discharged fire extinguisher near Colley's body. In searching the 300-acre horse farm, investigators found the extinguisher wrapped in a plastic bag in a pond. Tests by forensic scientists at the Westchester County Crime Lab determined Colley's DNA was on the extinguisher and confirmed that it was the murder weapon.

Authorities said the investigation included hundreds of interviews, phone records and video surveillance. In early 2016, a former day laborer, Marroquin Gomez, became a person of interest. Investigators found he had fled the area and had flown to Guatemala four days after the murder.

After an international and multi-jurisdictional manhunt, with the cooperation of the U.S. Department of State and the FBI, Marroquin Gomez was located in Mexico and returned to Westchester County.

In the interim, Marroquin Gomez had been indicted by a Westchester County grand jury on a charge of second-degree murder. He was arraigned on the indictment in Westchester County Court in November 2017 and since then has been in custody awaiting trial.

Prosecutors say the motive for the killing stemmed from a dispute with the Colley family starting in 2012, while Marroquin Gomez was a day laborer on the farm.

Eugene Colley is the multimillionaire owner of 100 McDonald's franchises.

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