A Yonkers pastor pleaded guilty this week to the brutal 2019 Bronx murder of his estranged wife, who he ran over, then hacked repeatedly with a machete in front of her grandchildren.
Victor Mateo, 65, will be sentenced in January to 23 years in prison on the first-degree manslaughter charge, Bronx DA Darcel Clark said in a statement.
Mateo parked his car outside the Throgs Neck home of Noelia Mateo just before 7 a.m. on October 3, 2019, according to investigators. When she left the home on Ellsworth Avenue to drive two of her grandchildren to school, Mateo struck hit her with his car, then ran her over with her own car that she tried hiding underneath, investigators said.
As she was on the ground after getting hit, Mateo went back to his car to retrieve a machete, which he hacked her with multiple times in front of her 11-year-old grandson and 9-year-old granddaughter, the DA said.
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He then fled the scene in his estranged wife's vehicle. In a joint effort by U.S. Marshals and the Pennsylvania State Police, Mateo was apprehended in Hazelton, Pennsylvania days later and extradited back to New York.
Mateo was a pastor at the Christian Congregation The Redeemer Church in the Bronx.
