Faces 50 Years For Violent Assault
A 22-year-old Corona man has been convicted of the June 2011 attempted murder-and forcible rape two months earlier-of his then-17-year-old ex-girlfriend, who is the mother of his infant son, law enforcement sources said.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified the defendant as Daniel Paguay, 22, whose last known address was on 39th Avenue in Corona. Paguay was convicted last Friday, Apr. 19, of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree rape, second- and third-degree assault, second degree burglary, second-degree criminal trespass aggravated criminal contempt, first- and second-degree criminal contempt, resisting arrest and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon following a threeweek jury trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder, who set sentencing for Apr. 30.
Paguay, who has been held without bail since his arraignment in June 2011, faces up to 50 years in prison on the attempted murder and rape charges.
“The facts of this case-in which [Paguay] has been found guilty of the violent assault on his child’s mother and the degradation and humiliation that she had previously suffered at his hands-clearly shows that he is a threat to society and deserving of a maximum prison sentence,” Brown said in a statement.
According to trial testimony, Paguay went to the residence of his ex-girlfriend’s mother to ask her to move back with him. When the exgirlfriend, who is also the mother of his infant, refused, he produced a knife and forced her to accompany him back to his residence a few houses away, where he brought her to the basement.
Prosecutors said Paguay then stabbed her in the thigh while stating, “I did that to make you feel the same as me.” At knifepoint he removed her pants and forcibly raped her. Eventually, Paguay allowed her to return home.
Despite an order of protection being issued in the rape case, prohibiting Paguay from having any contact or communication at all with his ex-girlfriend, he broke into her residence at approximately 2:00 a.m. on June 11, 2011, and rummaged through paperwork that she kept in her bedroom.
When Paguay was confronted by the victim’s sister, whom he had woken up, he said that he was looking for his property before fleeing.
Paguay, who had been released on $25,000 bail in the rape case, was scheduled to make an appearance on June 20, 2011, in Queens Criminal Court in that matter. He failed to appear, however, and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
At trial, the jury heard how Paguay chased his ex-girlfriend down 38th Avenue on the morning of June 2, 2011, and grabbed her in a choke hold and held a knife to her side. Paguay then dragged his ex-girlfriend into the Fine Fare Supermarket on 109th Street and 37th Avenue.
When police arrived at the scene, they observed Paguay stab his teenage victim in the back with a large knife.
The victim was transported to a local Queens hospital with multiple puncture wounds to her back, paralyzed from the waist down, and in cardiac arrest.
The investigation was handled by the 115th Precinct Detective Squad.
Assistant District Attorney Frank P. DeGaetano, a supervisor in the District Attorney’s Special Victims Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Marjory D. Fisher, bureau chief, and Kenneth M. Appelbaum and Lucinda C. Suarez, deputy bureau chiefs, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
