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Whitestone man sentenced to 28 years for stabbing girlfriend to death

By Madina Toure

A Whitestone man who stabbed his estranged girlfriend to death and then hid her body in the trunk of her car in September 2015 has been sentenced to up to 28 years in prison, according to the Queens district attorney.

Luis Zambrano, 31, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on March 31 as well as attempted burglary on an unrelated matter before Queens Supreme Court Judge Kenneth Holder, District Attorney Richard Brown announced Tuesday.

“A young woman—the mother of two small children—had her life senselessly and violently cut short,” Brown said. “The defendant, who professed to love her, repeatedly plunged a knife into her body and to hide his cowardly actions stuffed her bloody remains in the trunk of her own car. And then this killer fled the state hoping to escape justice.”

Holder sentenced Zambrano to 25 years in prison on the manslaughter charge and 1½ to three years in prison on the attempted burglary charge and the sentences are to run consecutively, Brown said.

Zambrano admitted to murdering the victim, Angie Escobar, 28, of Queens Village, whom he repeatedly stabbed on or about Sept. 6, 2015, Brown continued.

Escobar’s family last spoke to her on Sept. 5, 2015 and reported her missing four days later as she had missed her sons’ first day of school, the DA said.

Her decomposing body was found late on Sept. 10, 2015 in the trunk of her 2004 Nissan Maxima, which had been abandoned near 22nd Avenue and Murray Street in Whitestone, Brown said.

Zambrano was arrested in Daleville, Va. on Sept. 18, 2015 and waived extradition to New York, Brown added.

His attempted burglary charge stems from an incident on Oct. 2, 2013 at about 11:15 a.m. when he broke into the Paradise Alley Bar at 41-09 150th St. and stole about $100 in cash and three bottles of alcohol, the DA said.

Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtoure@cnglocal.com or by phone at (718) 260–4566.