A Harlem mom of four was barbarically slaughtered to death by a jealous and controlling ex-boyfriend so infuriated by being rejected that he repeatedly plunged a knife into her chest long after she’d lost consciousness, Manhattan prosecutors said Wednesday.
At Luis Marquez’s Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment, Assistant District Attorney Jonathon Junig said the 41-year-old suspect had identified himself as the man captured on surveillance video “brutally” stabbing Carmen Yadira Lopez on Monday but claimed he’d been “black out drunk” and couldn’t remember anything.
Lopez, 47, had just stepped out of the elevator in her building on W. 129th St. near St. Nicholas Terrace about 4:30 a.m. Monday, when Marquez “lunged at her” and pinned her to the ground, repeatedly stabbing her in the chest, throat, and stomach more than 20 times, Junig said.
“Surveillance video has audio as well, and the victim is heard screaming, ‘Luis, no!’ on video as the defendant stabbed her,” Junig said. “Even as the victim laid motionless on the ground covered in blood, the defendant continued to plunge the knife into her chest with both hands to ensure her demise.”
Charged with murder and related offenses, Marquez stood silently listening to a Spanish interpreter translate the prosecution’s gruesome rundown of the killing, in handcuffs and shackles and wearing a black hoodie, blue jeans and white New Balance sneakers.
A judge granted the prosecution’s request he be held without bail, citing the seriousness of the allegations and premeditated nature of the attack.
Marquez, who moved to the city from Venezuela in 2017, dated Lopez on and off for several years, Junig said. The prosecutor said her friends told authorities he was “often jealous and exhibited controlling behavior.” Marquez apparently felt disrespected because Lopez didn’t want to be with him, police sources told the Daily News on Tuesday.
He had stalked her over the weekend while she went clubbing with friends, Junig said in court Wednesday, waiting for more than two hours for her to arrive home.
Lopez cried out “over and over again as he stabbed her to death,” the prosecutor said in court.
Lopez was raising two kids, aged 7 and 14, in the apartment she shared with her mom, where the family lived for decades, according to neighbors. She also had two older sons no longer living at home.
A neighbor who spoke with The News on Tuesday said he felt tormented by ignoring the mother’s desperate pleas for help.
“I thought it was regular people fighting. This is nothing new around here. Thinking about it now, I feel bad I could’ve possibly helped, I could’ve possibly stopped him,” Zameon Prince, 35, a public school dean, said.
Following the stabbing, Marquez went to his home in the Highbridge section of the Bronx and then Lincoln Hospital to get treatment for minor cuts and bruises he suffered while savagely stabbing Lopez to death, according to police.
Cop sources said Tuesday that Marquez, who has no criminal record, made incriminating statements to hospital staff, leading to his arrest after a psychiatric evaluation.
Lopez was rushed to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital from the scene, but she could not be saved.
“She was a great mother and a great human being,” her sister, Lucy Lopez, told The News Tuesday.
“She loved our family, and she loved life. We don’t know how to start over.”
