LI Man Pleads Guilty To Killing Woman During Workplace Dispute: DA

MANORVILLE, NY — A Manorville man pleaded guilty Wednesday to killing a woman during a workplace dispute at a Long Island farm in 2020, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said.

Faustino Cruz-Marquez, 26, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter during the third day of his jury trial, Tierney said.

According to the investigation and evidence presented during the trial, 37-year-old Maria Carmelina Velasquez-Zhau was last seen on the evening of July 28, 2020, on the Cosmos Farm in Manorville, where she worked and lived. She lived in the property’s main house — separate from Cruz-Marquez, who also lived on the farm, prosecutors said.

On the evening of July 29, 2020, when the farm owner realized that Velasquez-Zhau had not shown up to work — an unusual occurrence — he led multiple search efforts to locate her and notified her family in Queens and New Jersey, Tierney said.

The next day, her family drove to the farm to search for her. During the search effort, Velasquez-Zhau's lifeless body was found in a wooded area on the outskirts of the farm, prosecutors said.

The cause of death was determined to have been homicidal violence by unspecified means, consistent with strangulation, Tierney said.

Another farm worker, Javier Santos-Moreno, last saw the victim on the evening of July 28, 2020, in the workers' kitchen, where she was engaged in a physical altercation with Cruz Marquez, Tierney said.

Velasquez-Zhau had accused Cruz-Marquez of being responsible for some of the produce getting damaged, making it unavailable for sale, Tierney said.

Santos-Moreno told detectives that Cruz-Marquez called him that night and told him that he choked Velasquez-Zhau to death and threatened him with violence if he told anyone what he saw, Tierney said.

Testimony about their phone call was corroborated by phone records, the DA added.

DNA evidence linking Cruz-Marquez to the killing was recovered from the woman's fingernails, and photos of her injuries taken in the days after the crime were recovered from his cell phone, Tiernesy said.

On May 3, Cruz-Marquez pleaded guilty before County Court Judge Stephen L. Braslow, to first-degree manslaughter, a violent felony, Tierney said.

Cruz-Marquez is due back in court on June 5 and is expected to be sentenced to be sentenced to 13 years in prison, with five years of post-release supervision, the DA said. Cruz-Marquez is being represented by Daniel Russo, Danielle Coysh, and Peter Mayer, Tierney said. His attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.

"A simple workplace dispute should not have led to the killing of Maria Carmelina Velasquez Zhau," Tierney said. "We are satisfied that justice has been served now that the defendant has taken accountability for his crimes, and that he will no longer put the victim’s family through any more pain throughout a trial."