Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that a 48-year-old Woodside, Queens resident has been charged with murder for slashing his elderly mother in head with a kitchen knife early Friday, April 24, 2020. The defendant allegedly said he didn’t know why he did this – but that he woke up, grabbed a butcher knife and stabbed his mother.

District Attorney Katz said, “This was an alleged act of matricide with blood splattered on the walls and pooling on the floors in the living room and kitchen. The 78-year-old victim – her body found lifeless on the floor and slumped against a kitchen cabinet – was allegedly killed by her own son. The defendant, who was hospitalized, is in custody and charged in this heinous slaying.”

The District Attorney’s Office identified the defendant as David Galicia, 48, of 41st Avenue in the Woodside section of Queens. Galicia was arraigned while hospitalized before Queens Criminal Court Judge David Kirschner on a complaint charging him with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Judge Kirschner remanded the defendant and set the next court date for May 28, 2020. If convicted, Galicia faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges, shortly after 7 a.m. on Friday, April 24th, police responded to a 911 call to an apartment building on 41st Avenue. There, they allegedly spotted a trail of blood from the building’s entrance to the apartment where Carmelita Cabansag lived with her son, defendant Galicia. Inside the apartment, police discovered the 78-year-old woman’s body on her kitchen floor. There were numerous wounds to the woman’s head and a bloody meat cleaver beside her.

Continuing, according to the DA, the defendant was present in the apartment when police arrived and was taken to a hospital for what appeared to be self-inflicted injuries. At the hospital, Galicia allegedly told police in sum and substance that he woke up, went to the bathroom and then took a butcher knife to his mother. The defendant allegedly further stated that he did not know why he did this.

The investigation was conducted by detectives of the New York City Police Department’s 108th Precinct Detective Squad and the Queens Homicide North Detective Squad.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Emily Collins with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Patricia Diaz, both of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John W. Kosinski and Kenneth A. Appelbaum, Deputy Bureau Chiefs and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.