By James DeWeese
Oscar Pilamunga of 98-01 37th Ave. pleaded guilty to second-degree murder April 13 in connection with his wife's killing, the DA's spokesman said.
And on May 12 Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Carol Berkman sentenced Pilamunga, who the Post reported was a kitchen worker, to 15 years to life, the spokesman said.
Pilamunga became enraged when he arrived at the couple's Corona apartment the evening of May 31, 2003, to find his wife packing her bags, the Ecuadorean immigrant wrote in his confession to police. The criminal complaint contained the transcribed confession, which unfolded as follows:
“She told me she did not have any feelings for me and that she wanted to leave, but I closed the door and she told me she felt more love for Bolivar,” Pilamunga wrote in Spanish. Bolivar was apparently another man with which Yually, who the Post reported was an ice cream vendor, was romantically involved. “At that moment, I lost my head and punched her in the head,” Pilamunga wrote in his confession.
The pair struggled for a while, first on the bed where Yually was sitting and then on the floor, Pilamunga said. He wrapped his hands around her neck and squeezed, Pilamunga said, according to the confession in the complaint.
“She stopped breathing and moving … at that a moment I saw she had no life,” Pilamunga wrote.
He said he left Yually's lifeless body lying on the floor for an hour before using a hand saw to sever her head, according to the complaint. Pilamunga said he then dropped his wife's head in a plastic bag before taking a nap for a couple hours, the complaint said.
When Pilamunga woke up about 2 a.m. the next day, he told police he dropped Yually's head and the black jacket she had been wearing in a dumpster somewhere between 34th and 35th avenues and 98th and 99th streets, the complaint said.
Later that day, Pilamunga stuffed his wife's body, which he temporarily stashed in a bag behind the refrigerator, in a $29 suitcase he bought at a Corona store, according to the complaint. He called a cab and headed for a Harlem park at 125th Street, where he left the blue luggage on the sidewalk, Pilamunga said.
A spokeswoman for the Manhattan DA said police never recovered Yually's head.
Reach reporter James DeWeese by e-mail at news@timeledger.com, or call 718-229-0300, Ext. 157.
