Press Release
QUEENS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDERING 92-YEAR-OLD WOMAN
Victim Sexually Assaulted in Street and Found Naked From Waist Down; Sentencing Scheduled for July 6
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Reeaz Khan pleaded guilty today to murder and other charges in the heinous attack of a 92-year-old woman walking near her Richmond Hill home on a frigid January night in 2020. The defendant threw her to the ground, sexually assaulted her and sprinted from the scene.
District Attorney Katz said: “This defendant savagely attacked a defenseless, elderly woman and left her to die on the freezing pavement. He rightly will be sentenced to a long prison term.”
Khan, 24, of 134th Street, Richmond Hill, Queens, pleaded guilty to murder in the second degree and attempted rape in the first degree. Justice Kenneth C. Holder indicated that he would sentence the defendant on July 6 to 22 years to life on the murder charge and eight years in prison on the attempted rape charge.
According to the charges:
– Khan was seen on video surveillance footage approaching Maria Fuertes, 92, from behind as she walked on 127th Avenue on January 6, 2020, at approximately 12:01 a.m. Video shows them both dropping to the ground.
– Approximately five minutes later, Khan is seen on the video footage with his pants undone and running off.
– At approximately 2:14 a.m., Fuertes was found by a passerby who called 911. The victim, whose dress was lifted to her chest, was barely conscious and incoherent when she was taken to a local hospital, where she later died. Doctors found that Fuertes had sustained two fractures to her spine, two rib fractures, bruising to her neck and chest and other injuries.
– An autopsy determined Fuertes died from blunt force trauma and hypothermia.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Selkowe, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack and John W. Kosinski, Senior Deputy Chiefs, Karen Ross, Deputy Chief and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.
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