Press Release
QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO 22 YEARS TO LIFE FOR MURDERING 92-YEAR-OLD WOMAN
Winter Attack in Street Left Victim Battered on Freezing Pavement for Hours
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Reeaz Khan was sentenced to prison today for the murder and attempted rape of a 92-year-old woman he brutally attacked and left to die near her Richmond Hill home on a frigid night in 2020. An autopsy determined the victim died from blunt force trauma and hypothermia.
District Attorney Katz said: “We have succeeded in getting a dangerous predator off our streets for his horrific assault of a defenseless elderly woman. I hope that the long prison term provides at least some measure of solace to the victim’s loved ones.”
Khan, 24, of 134th Street in Richmond Hill, pleaded guilty last month to murder in the second degree and attempted rape in the first degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder today sentenced Khan to 22 years to life on the murder charge and eight years in prison on the attempted rape charge. These sentences are to run concurrently.
According to the charges:
• Khan was seen on video surveillance footage approaching Maria Fuertes, 92, from behind as she walked along 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 prosecuted 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.