Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Carmelo Mendoza was sentenced to 18 years to life in prison for the fatal stabbing of his wife during an argument inside their Jackson Heights apartment in July 2020.

District Attorney Katz said: “This man was responsible for a brutal murder, which he carried out in front of the victim’s teen-age daughter. I hope the grieving family finds a measure of solace in knowing he will be going to prison for a long time.”

Mendoza, 44, of 34th Road in Jackson Heights, pleaded guilty last month to murder in the second degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis who imposed today’s indeterminate sentence of 18 years to life in prison.

According to the charges:

• On July 3, 2020, in the early morning, Mendoza argued with his wife, Yaquelin Collado, 45, in their bedroom. The fight continued into a hallway and eventually into the kitchen.

• After hearing her mother’s screams, the victim’s 19-year-old daughter immediately rushed toward the couple and 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 her mother.

• Mendoza fell to the floor and got back up and continued to stab 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. She then called her boyfriend and 911.

• When police entered the apartment, they found Mendoza lying on top of Collado who was in a pool of blood with a kitchen knife nearby. The defendant stabbed himself numerous times in the abdomen.

• Collado and the defendant were both taken to a local hospital where, as result of approximately 27 knife wounds, Collado was pronounced dead. The defendant was treated for self-inflicted injuries.

Assistant District Attorney Timothy Shortt of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter J. McCormack III and John W. Kosinski, Senior Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and Karen Ross, Deputy Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.