Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Carmelo Mendoza, 41, has been arraigned following a Queens County grand jury handing up an indictment charging the defendant with murder for fatally stabbing his wife inside their Jackson Heights apartment in July.

District Attorney Katz said, “This is the worst outcome of domestic violence, an argument that turned violent and deadly. The defendant allegedly stabbed his wife more than two dozen times, as the victim’s 19-year old daughter tried in vain to stop the brutal attack. The defendant will be held accountable for his alleged actions.”

Mendoza, of 34th Road in Jackson Heights, was arraigned today before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Justice Aloise remanded the defendant and set his return date for November 17, 2020. If convicted, Mendoza faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the charges, in the early morning hours of July 3, 2020, the defendant, who is the husband of the victim Yaquelin Collado, 45, was inside their apartment and the couple argued in a bedroom. The fight continued into a hallway and eventually into the kitchen area.

Continuing, according to the complaint, after hearing her mother’s screams, the victim’s 19-year-old daughter immediately rushed toward the couple. At that time she allegedly saw Mendoza stab her mother repeatedly in the chest, neck and torso. The young woman attempted to stop the defendant by throwing items at him and tried to push him off of her mother. Mendoza then fell to the floor, but got back up and allegedly continued to stab Ms. Collado. The victim said to her daughter in Spanish, “I’m dying, get out of here.” The daughter, who injured her leg as she tried to intervene, ran out of the apartment and began banging on her neighbors’ doors, screaming for help. The young woman then called her boyfriend and 911.

District Attorney Katz added when police arrived at the location they were informed by the victim’s daughter that Mendoza was still inside the apartment. Upon entering the unit, police officers found the defendant lying on top of the victim and observed the victim lying in a pool of blood with a kitchen knife nearby. The defendant had allegedly stabbed himself numerous times in the abdomen.

Ms. Collado and the defendant were both immediately transported to a local Queens hospital where as a result of approximately 27 knife wounds, Ms. Collado was pronounced dead. The defendant was treated for self-inflicted injuries and has since been released.

Assistant District Attorneys Suzanne Bettis and Kirk Sendlein of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad Leventhal, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John Kosinski and Kenneth Appelbaum, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, Robert S. Ciesla, Section Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.