Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Evelyn Cruz, 48, has been indicted by a Queens County grand jury and arraigned in Supreme Court on charges of murder and other crimes for allegedly stabbing to death a female neighbor inside the apartment building where Cruz lived. The violence unfolded late Saturday evening on January 22, 2022 in Far Rockaway, Queens.

District Attorney Katz said, “Violence is never the way to resolve a dispute. The defendant is accused of brutally stabbing her neighbor to death. This senseless act has left a family in mourning and the entire community sharing their grief.  The defendant is in custody and now faces very serious charges for her alleged actions.”

Cruz, of Seagirt Avenue, in Far Rockaway, Queens, was arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder on a two-count indictment charging her with one count of murder in the second degree and one count of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Justice Holder set the defendant’s return date for February 17, 2022. If convicted, Cruz faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison.

According to the charges, shortly after 11:35 p.m., Saturday, January 22, 2022, the defendant and the victim, Jessica Britt, 33, were engaged in an argument that spilled over from earlier in the day. During the argument, the defendant allegedly displayed a knife and stabbed the victim one time in the chest, fatally wounding her.

The defendant was apprehended shortly after the incident.

The investigation was conducted by Detective Edgar Brito of the New York Police Department 107^th Precinct Detective Squad.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Courtney Charles, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Anthony Vittiglio, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter McCormack III and John Kosinski, Senior Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.