Quantcast

Man gets 25 years to life in prison for gruesome stabbing of former lover at a Flushing park

gavel
Photo: Shutterstock

A Brooklyn man was sentenced for the brutal stabbing of an Elmhurst woman who was found nearly decapitated in Kissena Corridor Park in 2015, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

Christopher Sobers, 28, was convicted of second-degree murder, tampering with physical evidence and fifth-degree criminal possession of stolen property. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison before the Queens Supreme Court on March 20, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown said.

According to trial testimony, on Oct. 11, 2015, the body of 28-year-old Qing Qing Kiemde of Elmhurst was found by a homeless man in Kissena Corridor Park near Colden Street and Laburnum Avenue. The body was horribly mangled and disemboweled, and was nearly decapitated.

Kiemde met Sobers in a group meeting and became romantically involved with him.

Sobers, who was a resident of Queens at this time, repeatedly stabbed and slashed Kiemde to death on or about Oct. 10, 2015. When Sobers was taken in for questioning by police, he was in possession of the victim’s cellphone, which had been erased all Kiemde’s data and replaced with his own information.

Kiemde also was known to have carried a very distinctive handbag. Sobers was seen on video surveillance carrying a bag with the exact same features as Kiemde’s bag after her death.

“This was a senseless and brutal slaying. A young woman died in a violent knife attack, but today her killer has been sentenced to a very long term of incarceration,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “It is my hope that her family can find some comfort in knowing the defendant will be locked away from civilized society and no other innocent woman will be victimized at his hands.”