The Elmhurst man who stabbed his wife to death in 2014 and went on with his day, after faking her suicide note, has been sentenced to serve 18 years in prison, prosecutors announced.
Luis Paguay, 43, was sentenced Tuesday after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter this past June. After his 18-year sentence, the judge also ordered five years of post-release supervision.
According to court documents, Paguay admitted to stabbing his 39-year-old wife, Maria Paguay, in their basement Elmhurst apartment between the night of Dec. 3, 2014, and just before 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2014. A large kitchen knife was found near the victim’s body.
After killing his wife, Paguay wrote a note in his wife’s name claiming that her death was a suicide, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown. He then went to his job as a dishwasher at Ducale Restaurant in Whitestone.
Once arriving at the restaurant, Paguay noticed blood on his shoes and video surveillance from the site shows what looked like him washing his shoes in a sink, authorities said.
Maria Paguay’s body was found around 6 p.m. on Dec. 4, 2014, by her 19-year-old son who had just come home from school.
“Although the defendant ultimately took responsibility for his violent crime by pleading guilty to manslaughter, he first tried to make it appear that his wife took her own life by writing a suicide note in her name and letting her 19-year-old son discover his mother’s bloody remains upon returning home from school,” Brown said. “The lengthy sentence imposed by the court is a just resolution to this case.”
