Glen Cove Man Sentenced to Prison for Stabbing Ex-Girlfriend to Death

A man who stabbed his ex-girlfriend to death in Glen Cove last year was sentenced Monday to 18 years to life in prison, according to Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas.

Jose Cartagena, 56, of Glen Cove, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder on Nov. 2.

On March 26, 2105, Yanira Estelle Canjura Martinez, 32, was walking south on Pearsall Avenue in Glen Cove to pick up her 5-year-old daughter when she was stabbed multiple times by Cartagena in a parking lot at 3:15 p.m., police said.

Martinez, a mother of three, was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 4:02 p.m.

She had separated from Cartagena a week earlier, the DA reports.

Nassau County homicide detectives had to travel to northern California to arrest Cartagena on April 6, 2015.

“[Cartagena] senselessly murdered his ex-girlfriend and left three children without their mother,” Singas said in a press release. “I thank the U.S. Marshals, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Nassau County Police Department for returning him to New York so that he could face justice.”

Image via NCDA