MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2005

D.A. BROWN: MANHATTAN CHEF CHARGED WITH MURDER IN STABBING DEATH OF WIFE INSIDE THEIR WOODSIDE RESIDENCE
Three-Year-Old Daughter Witness to Crime; Faces Up To Life in Prison

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Woodside man – in federal custody on an immigration warrant – has been indicted by a Queens County Grand Jury for intentional murder in the fatal stabbing last August of his wife inside their residence. The couple’s three-year-old daughter is alleged to have been present while the attack took place.

District Attorney Brown said, “According to the charges, the defendant, during a family dispute, is alleged to have stabbed his wife to death with a steak knife, fatally injuring her in front of their three-year-old daughter. The defendant’s actions were violent and ruthless and have left his young daughter deeply traumatized and facing an upbringing and a life without her mother’s love and guidance. The charges against him will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Louis Roberto Jara Coello, 31, of 46-01 67th Street in Woodside, Queens, a former chef at a Manhattan nightclub. The defendant has been charged with Murder in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree and Endangering the Welfare of a Child and faces 25 years to life in prison, if convicted.

The District Attorney said that, according to the charges on Sunday, August 28, 2005 between 8 and 9:30 a.m. the defendant during a verbal dispute inside their residence at 46-01 67th Street in Woodside is alleged to have intentionally stabbed his wife, Fanny Anguisaca, 29, a hairdresser, multiple times with a six-inch steak knife in her abdomen and shoulder, causing her death. The victim is alleged to have separated with her husband three weeks prior to the incident.

District Attorney Brown said that the couple’s three-year-old daughter was awake and present inside the residence at the time of the incident and fortunately, was not physically injured. The defendant fled the scene with his daughter and shortly after quit his job of eight years without citing a reason. The knife was recovered at the scene.

The District Attorney said that the defendant was arrested earlier today while he was being held in federal custody in New Jersey after being arrested on an immigration warrant on August 31, 2005 when he had surrendered to the New York City Police Department’s 108 Precinct with his attorney present. He is being held pending arraignment in Queens Supreme Court.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Joseph Bey of the NYPD’s 108 Precinct’s Detective Squad under the supervision of Lieutenant Salvatore Salerno, Commanding Officer.

Assistant District Attorney Travis W. Hunter of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief, and Richard B. Schaeffer, Senior Trial Attorney, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.

An indictment is merely an accusation and a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.