She’s Convicted In Corona Slay
Jurors convicted a Florida woman last week for ordering the murder of a former business partner in Corona nearly six years ago, prosecutors announced.
Ynmaculada Gomez, 46, of Tampa, Fla. was found guilty of second-degree murder, seconddegree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence for orchestrating the November 2008 murder of 31-yearold Mario Rei of 43rd Avenue in Corona.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth C. Holder, who presided over the three-week trial, scheduled sentencing for July 14; Gomez faces 40 years to life behind bars.
Prosecutors said Gomez hired a mechanic who worked for her- identified as Luis Rosado, 36, also of Tampa, Fla.-as her hitman; he gunned down Rei just after the victim left work at the Corona Ready Mix concrete plant on Nov. 11, 2008. Rosado is currently awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty earlier this year to manslaughter.
“[Gomez] thought she could get away with murder, but she was wrong,” Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said in a statement last Wednesday, June 25, announcing the verdict. “She has now been held accountable for the cold-blooded shooting of her ex-partner outside his place of business. Her actions warrant a lengthy prison sentence to punish her and protect society.”
Months before his murder, according to trial testimony, Rei and Gomez were partners in an auto repair shop in Tampa, Fla. Financial difficulties, however, forced them to split, and Rei-who previously lived in Queens-relocated to Corona in 2008; he wound up taking a job as a part-time mechanic at Corona Ready Mix, located at 50-30 98th St.
After their partnership dissolved, law enforcement sources said, Gomez began looking for a hitman to take Rei out. In the end, Rosado agreed to join her for a drive from Tampa to Queens to do the deadly deed.
Upon arriving in Queens, prosecutors stated, Gomez and Rosado secured a .40-cal. semiautomatic handgun which Gomez owned and left in a friend’s residence. They then drove to Corona Ready Mix on the afternoon of Nov. 11, 2008, and waited for Rei to leave work.
Just after 5 p.m., law enforcement sources stated, Rei-having concluded his shift-left the plant and walked to his car when Rosado approached. Seconds later, Rosado used the .40-cal. handgun to fire three shots into Rei’s chest.
Rosado then returned to the car where Gomez was waiting, and the pair drove back to Florida, authorities said .
Members of the 110th Precinct and EMS units rushed to the scene. Rei died a short time later at the nowdefunct St. John’s Queens Hospital.
After news of Rei’s death broke, Brown stated, detectives received a call from Gomez’s friend who previously had the handgun and told them what she knew about Gomez’s relationship with Rei.
During the investigation, it was noted, a witness picked Rosado’s photo out of a police array and claimed he saw the suspect loitering outside Corona Ready Mix before the murder took place.
Detectives with the NYPD Queens Homicide Squad traveled to Tampa on Dec. 2, 2008 and arrested Rosado on murder charges. The following day, they executed a search warrant at Gomez’s home and found the .40-cal. gun, which-as ballistic tests confirmed-was used in the homicide.
Prosecutors said Rosado pled guilty on May 27 of this year to firstdegree manslaughter and is scheduled to be sentenced to 24 years in prison on July 23.
The prosecution was conducted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Shawn Clark of the DA’s Homicide Trial Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Michelle Kaszuba of the Homicide Investigations Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, bureau chief, and Jack Warsawsky, deputy bureau chief.
