Former Boyfriend Pleads Guilty To Murdering Monica Lozada

Cesar Ascarrunz, the man alleged to have killed Monica Lozada and abandoned her four-year-old daughter Valerie, has pleaded guilty to the murder of his former girlfriend.
District Attorney Richard A. Brown said, “The defendant’s admission of guilt in the violent death of Monica Lozada and the abandonment of her 4-year-old daughter Valery, closes the book on a case that captured the attention of people all across the country. It not only ensures that the defendant is held responsible for his actions and protects society, but it also spares young Valery the emotional trauma of having to testify about the events surrounding her abandonment and the death of her mother.”
Ascarrunz pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the first degree in connection with the death of his former girlfriend and reckless endangerment in the first degree with respect to the abandonment of her child. Sentencing has been set for March 15, at which time he will likely receive 25 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and a consecutive term of 2 1/3 to 7 years in the endangerment charge.
The district attorney said that the indictment filed in the case charges that between September 24 and 25, 2005 in the defendant’s residence at 111-17 66th Avenue in Forest Hills, the defendant murdered Monica Lozada, 26, placed her body in a black plastic garbage and thereafter left it on a Forest Hills street. The body was later recovered in a Pennsylvania garbage dump. Lozada’s four-year-old child was abandoned, crying and alone, by the defendant on a darkened street in Middle Village.