A Queens man who strangled his landlord to death in a clash over unpaid rent in 2023 was sentenced to 22 years in prison, the Queens district attorney announced.
Davi Vidal, 21, was sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant on Friday for the strangulation death of his 55-year-old landlord, Zoraida Leo, whose lifeless body was found by police in her building near 96th St. near 32nd Ave. in East Elmhurst on Dec. 5, 2023. Vidal will also have five years of post-release supervision.
“This defendant brutally attacked Zoraida Leo after a rent dispute and then callously left her to die on the floor of her own home,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said. “No family should endure the loss of a loved one in such a cruel manner. We cannot undo this egregious harm, but with this sentence we have helped secure justice for Ms. Leo’s family.”
Prosecutors said that on Dec. 4 around 7:30 p.m., Leo and Vidal got into an argument over unpaid rent that turned physical, with Vidal strangling the victim with his hands and a cord from an iron.
Leo’s son discovered her body the next day when he went to the home and found her near the bathroom entryway. She was sprawled out on the floor with scratches on her face. Police initially believed she was beaten to death, but an autopsy by the New York City medical examiner later determined she died of strangulation.
“It was a terrible scene,” Leo’s neighbor and friend Eva Rivera told the Daily News at the time of the incident. “He was screaming, ‘My mom was killed!’”
Vidal who had lived in the building’s attic apartment for around two years, was arrested the same day after her body was found after cops zeroed in on him.
“She was an incredibly nice lady,” Rivera said of Leo. “She never had any trouble with anybody. It was a terrible tragedy.”
Of Vidal, she said, “After killing her, he didn’t even run away. He went back to his room on the second floor and hid like nothing happened.”
Vidal, who was 19 at the time of the slaying, would always say he didn’t have work, Rivera said: “All he ever did was sit on the stairs.”
When cops arrested Vidal, he admitted, while crying, to strangling Leo and pushing her down a flight of stairs, according to prosecutors.
“When she fell, I didn’t help her because I was scared,” Vidal allegedly told arresting officers. “I didn’t know what to do, I’m not a doctor.
“It’s my fault that she died, because I pushed her,” he added.
Vidal plead guilty to manslaughter in January.
