NY man charged with killing Guyanese girlfriend

A 24-year-old man has been charged with murder after he confessed to killing his Guyanese girlfriend in Queens, New York on Tuesday.

According to the New York Daily News, Miguel Pichardo, the man suspected of killing Yollanda Gonsalves, was arrested after he returned to the scene of the crime draped in a bloody towel.

Pichardo has since been arraigned but not before offering a confession and a detailed account of how he disposed of the 27-year-old woman’s body.

Miguel Pichardo (Robert Stridiron/New York Daily News photo)
Miguel Pichardo (Robert Stridiron/New York Daily News photo)

The Daily News report stated that Assistant District Attorney Kristen Papadopoulos, at the man’s arraignment on Wednesday, read from statements Pichardo allegedly made to detectives at the 102nd Precinct stationhouse.

“I felt like it was her time to die,” he told police, according to court papers. “I slapped the f——-g s—t out of her.”

Pichardo reportedly told detectives that he looked into his girlfriend’s soul as he killed her, and then wrapped her body in a rug.

Yollanda Gonsalves
Yollanda Gonsalves

He then demonstrated the gruesome act with a bagel and a paper plate at the stationhouse, police said. Police earlier said the woman was stabbed once in the shoulder and once in the wrist and died at the scene.

The report stated that Pichardo made his court appearance wearing a blood-stained Tyvek suit, and stood silently as the charges were read against him. A few members of his family in the courtroom broke into tears as they saw him enter.

It was also reported that the man’s lawyer, Marc Laykind, told the judge he was having trouble communicating with Pichardo and noted that he would not acknowledge anything he said.

The court-appointed attorney waived Pichardo’s right to a speedy trial, meaning the District Attorney will have until at least July 1st to get a grand jury to indict him.