A Glen Cove man has pleaded guilty to murdering his 51-year-old mother-in-law by stabbing her seven times outside a West Hempstead restaurant following a family birthday celebration in 2024, Nassau County prosecutors said.
Erick Corado Gonzalez, 29, pleaded guilty Thursday, Sept. 3, before Judge Caryn Fink to second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder, according to Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly.
Gonzalez is expected to be sentenced to 25 years to life in prison when he returns to court Oct. 15. Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of 30 years to life.
The killing happened after Ana Espinoza and other relatives gathered at La Candela II restaurant in West Hempstead on Sept. 28, 2024, to celebrate the birthday of Espinoza’s adult daughter, prosecutors said.
Gonzalez, the estranged husband of Espinoza’s daughter, had not been invited to the celebration.
Just after midnight on Sept. 29, family members began leaving the restaurant and walking toward their vehicles when Gonzalez approached Espinoza in the parking lot and stabbed her seven times in the torso, prosecutors said.
When Espinoza’s husband tried to intervene, Gonzalez stabbed him in the hand, according to the district attorney’s office.
Espinoza’s adult son also attempted to help his mother. Prosecutors said Gonzalez pointed an imitation pistol at him and threatened him not to follow before fleeing.
The attack occurred in front of Gonzalez’s 2-year-old son.
Espinoza and her husband were taken to Winthrop Hospital. Espinoza suffered hemorrhagic shock from a stab wound to the neck and was pronounced dead at 3:58 a.m., prosecutors said.
Gonzalez fled New York after the stabbing and was arrested later that day in Linden, New Jersey, by local authorities. He was extradited to Nassau County on Oct. 22, 2024.
Investigators recovered a knife from the restaurant parking lot and an imitation pistol from the trunk of Gonzalez’s vehicle.
“A family celebration turned tragic when this defendant ambushed his mother-in-law in a restaurant parking lot,” Donnelly said.
The case is being prosecuted by Senior Litigation Counsel Tracy Keeton of the Nassau County District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau. Gonzalez is represented by attorney Joseph LoPiccolo.
