Glen Cove Man Could Serve 25-To-Life After Guilty Plea In Mother-In-Law’s Fatal Stabbing: DA

MINEOLA, NY — A Glen Cove man could face 25 years to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to stabbing his mother-in-law to death as she left her daughter's birthday celebration in 2024, prosecutors said Thursday.

Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said Thursday that 29-year-old Erick Corado Gonzalez had pleaded guilty to charges of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder in connection with the stabbing that took place outside La Candela II restaurant in West Hempstead.

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According to prosecutors, 51-year-old Ana Espinoza was out in West Hempstead on Sept. 28, 2024 to celebrate her daughter's birthday with her husband and other members of their family at La Candela II.

Not invited to the dinner, prosecutors said, was Gonzalez, who had married Espinoza's daughter but was estranged from her by the time of the birthday celebration.

Just after midnight, the party was wrapping up and party guests were walking to their cars when Gonzalez approached his estranged mother-in-law in the parking lot and stabbed her in the torso seven times, prosecutors said.

Espinoza's husband tried to intervene and Gonzalez stabbed him in the hand, prosecutors said. Her adult son also tried to help his mother, but Gonzalez pointed an imitation pistol at him and threatened him not to follow him, prosecutors said.

Also present at the time of the attack, prosecutors said, was Gonzalez's two-year-old son.

As Gonzalez fled the scene, Espinoza and her husband were taken to Winthrop hospital where the 51-year-old woman suffered hemorrhagic shock from a stab wound in her neck and was pronounced dead at 3:58 a.m., prosecutors said.

Gonzalez fled the state but was arrested in Linden, NJ the same day, Sept. 29, 2024, prosecutors said. He was extradited to Nassau County Oct. 22, 2024, prosecutors said.

As police investigated the incident, they found a knife in the restaurant parking lot and an imitation pistol in the trunk of Gonzalez's car, prosecutors said.

"A family celebration turned tragic when this defendant ambushed his mother-in-law in a restaurant parking lot, put her in a headlock, and savagely stabbed her repeatedly in her neck and body, while the defendant's two-year-old son watched," Donnelly said. "Ana died a few hours later from her extensive injuries and blood loss. Gonzalez's rage and unrepressed violence tore apart this family, robbing them of a mother and grandmother still very much in the prime of her life. Because of his ruthlessness, Gonzalez now forfeits his freedom and the chance to be a father to his young son."

Prosecutors said Gonzalez would be due back in court Oct. 25 and could be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The DA's office said it had recommended a sentence of 30 years to life.