By Bill Parry
It was a vicious fight that turned deadly and now a 22-year-old Woodside man has been sentenced to 17 years in prison in the beating death of a shop owner in March 2016.
Victor Mendoza pleaded guilty in March to first-degree manslaughter before Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Zayas, who sentenced the defendant to 17 years followed by five years of post-release supervision.
Mendoza was drunk and belligerent when he began verbally berating a friend and employee of the victim, 34-year-old Martin Quiej, who was smoking a cigarette outside of Tauros Party Supplies at 41-24 54th St. on March 5, 2016. When another friend of the employee asked what was going on, Mendoza became increasingly agitated and the friend retreated into the lobby of the apartment house in front of which he was standing to protect himself.
According to the charges, Mendoza tried to pull the door open but only succeeded in pulling the metal handle off of the door. As Mendoza walked away, he passed Quiej’s party store while swinging the metal door handle at Quiej, who grabbed a metal tent pole to defend himself.
The two men began to struggle and wound up on the street where Mendoza struck Quiej in the head with the metal handle, knocking him to the ground. Mendoza struck Quiej a second time with the handle before dropping it and fleeing as police had been called and were responding to the scene, according to the charges.
“The victim was a young, hardworking, family man who had been born in Guatemala and came to this country to make a better life for his family and himself,” District Attorney Richard A. Brown said. “Instead, his life was drastically cut short by the defendant, who viciously assaulted him. His wife is now struggling to keep his business going and raise their three children who don’t understand the why’s of what happened to their father. Hopefully, they can find solace in knowing that the man responsible for their father’s death will be incarcerated for a lengthy period of time as punishment for his heinous act and to protect society.”
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
