NYC triple homicide suspect is held without bail
Jan 24, 2014, 8:41 PM
NEW YORK (AP) – A man who stabbed his wife to death told authorities he also killed his two toddlers because he didn’t have car seats to take them on the lam to Mexico, prosecutors said Friday as he was charged with murder.
Miguel Mejia-Ramos did not speak at his court appearance Friday and was placed on suicide watch afterward. He was being held without bail in the deaths of 23-year-old Deisy Garcia, 1-year-old Yoselin Mejia and 2-year-old Daniela Mejia. His attorney did not immediately respond to a comment request.
Mejia-Ramos had been out drinking at a friend’s house on Sunday, authorities said. He came home, rifled through his wife’s phone and Facebook account, and snapped when he saw a photo of her with another man, prosecutors said.
He pulled a knife from a butcher block as his sleeping wife awoke, chased her from her bed and stabbed her to death, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. He then hugged and kissed his daughters before stabbing them, too, Brown said. Five bloody knives were recovered, he said.
Prosecutors said Mejia-Ramos tried to kill himself after the brutal attack but didn’t go through with it. On Monday, authorities tracked him to Texas, about 1,700 miles from New York, when he turned on his cellphone. He was captured at a vehicle roadblock on Interstate 10 in Schulenburg, between Houston and San Antonio and about three hours from Mexico, authorities said.
Brown said he met with friends and family of the victims.
“Everyone is, of course, devastated by that which occurred,” he said. “I assured them that this case will be vigorously prosecuted and there will be no plea bargaining.”
Mejia-Ramos was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and faces life in prison without parole if convicted.
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