Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Stephen Giraldo pleaded guilty today to attempted murder for slamming into his wife with his SUV and then stabbing her in the presence of the couple’s three children, who witnessed the assault as passengers in their father’s car. Their mother survived, but has not regained consciousness since the December 2022 attack and remains under care.

District Attorney Katz said: “The horrifying brutality of the attack, and the fact that it was committed in full view of the victim’s three young children, stirred outrage and heartbreak across the city. We welcome the guilty plea and seeing a violent, dangerous man go to prison, but today’s outcome does not remedy the immense pain and lifelong suffering the defendant caused.”

Giraldo, 36, of 144^th Street in Jamaica, pleaded guilty today to attempted murder before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky who is expected to sentence the defendant to 25 years in prison on October 6.

According to the charges:

• On December 27, 2022, at approximately 5:20 a.m. Giraldo was in a white Ford Explorer outside the residence of his estranged wife, 41-year-old Sophia Giraldo, to drop off the couple’s three children, ages 11, 9 and 6.
• Video surveillance shows Giraldo get out of the car to move a trash bag that was blocking it and then get back into the vehicle. At the same time, Sophia Giraldo walked out of her residence and in front of the car.
• Giraldo told the children to “Keep your seatbelt on,” then intentionally drove the SUV directly into his wife.
• After colliding with the victim, the car turned onto its side. Giraldo crawled over his son in the front passenger seat and out of the vehicle’s window and then stabbed his wife with a knife.
• The victim suffered severe neurological damage, broken bones in her leg and a stab wound that punctured her liver.

Assistant District Attorney Audra Beerman, Deputy Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Mary Kate Quinn, Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Special Prosecutions Division Joyce Smith.