A Grand Jury will consider murder charges against the 28-year-old Jackson Heights man accused of the sex assault and bludgeoning of a 23-year-old Flushing woman, after she died in New York Hospital Queens
Chinese immigrant Yu Yau, who lived at 132-09 Maple Avenue in Flushing, was declared dead on Friday, May 21, after lingering in a coma for nearly a week following the attack. She had moved to New York only two months before.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Yau was walking on 41st Road near Main Street at 9:10 p.m. on Sunday, May 16, when Carlos Salazar Cruz, 28, of 35-07 92nd Street, “struck her in the head with a pipe and, grabbing the victim by the hair, dragged her into a nearby alleyway.”
Cruz allegedly used the pipe to assault her sexually. According to Brown, the unconscious victim was found naked from the waist down; the bloody pipe was recovered and Cruz was arrested by 109th Precinct police nearby after a witness called 9-1-1.
Cruz is currently being held without bail on Riker’s Island on charges including attempted murder. A spokesperson for Brown could not say when the Grand Jury would receive the murder indictment. Cruz is due back in court on Tuesday, June 1.
Yau’s grief-stricken mother arrived at Newark Liberty Airport on Monday, May 24, after Congressmember Gary Ackerman appealed to the State Department to expedite a visa so that the family could claim her body and return home for burial.
“The brutal attack and sexual assault allegedly carried out by the defendant was apparently unprovoked,” DA Brown said.
If Cruz is charged with and convicted of second-degree murder, he could go to prison for life.
