A Rego Park man could spend the rest of his life behind bars after a jury found him guilty of killing his pregnant girlfriend, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Anthony Hobson, 51, was convicted Tuesday, Jan. 25, after a jury trial of murder and other crimes in the February 2019 knife attack on his girlfriend, Jennifer Irigoyen, in Ridgewood.
The jury found Hobson, of 64th Avenue in Rego Park, guilty of murder, tampering with evidence and criminal possession of a weapon following a two-week-long trial. Queens Supreme court Justice Michael B. Aloise, who presided at the trial, set sentencing for Feb. 17.
Hobson faces up to 25 years to life in prison, with additional possible time for the tampering with evidence conviction.
According to trial testimony, on Feb. 9, 2019, at around 1 a.m., on the third floor of a residential building on Myrtle Avenue, a neighbor heard the victim screaming, “Help! Help! He’s trying to kill the baby!”
The neighbor ran into the hallway and saw the defendant dragging Irigoyen, a 35-year-old real estate agent, into the stairwell. The witness saw Hobson — using what appeared to be a kitchen steak knife — repeatedly stab the victim.
Katz said Irigoyen suffered puncture wounds to her neck, chest and abdomen, along with numerous other injuries. Officers from the 104th Precinct and EMS units responded to the scene. Paramedics rushed Irigoyen to Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, where she and her unborn child were later pronounced dead.
Hobson left the scene with the murder weapon, which was never recovered. He fled to Pennsylvania but turned himself in to law enforcement five days after the murder.
“The defendant has been convicted and held responsible for taking the life of a woman, who was the mother of a young son and was also approximately 12 weeks pregnant,” Katz said. The defendant now faces a lengthy prison sentence from the court.”
