The handyman and on-again-off-again former lover of a Queens mother he allegedly killed and dragged away inside a hockey duffel bag -- a gruesome case that shocked the city -- has been sentenced to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
David Bonola pled guilty earlier this month in the killing of Orsolya Gaal, whose dismembered body was found in a duffel bag near Forest Park one mid-April morning.
The bag belonged to one of Gaal's son's, prosecutors said.
Bonola, a 44-year-old from South Richmond Hill, had gone to Gaal's home around 12:30 a.m. on April 16. She had just come back from an evening out around the same time. Bonola, who had done work at her home on several occasions, went inside once she was there and the two started arguing, court records say.
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Then he slashed her throat and stabbed her more than 50 times, according to prosecutors.
The body of the 51-year-old mother from Forest Hills was found hours later, after a trail of blood from the bag where she had been dumped led investigators back to her home not far away. Gaal had lived there with her husband and two sons before she died.
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After his arrest, Bonola told police that he and Gaal argued over their relationship, law enforcement sources have said. The two allegedly had an intimate affair, as Gaal also employed him for odd jobs around her Juno Street home for a few years. He didn't live far away, they added, and NYPD officials said he knew where the spare key was hidden, too.
Bonola and Gaal had been on-again-off-again for about two years, police said, and last reunited romantically in early April. At the time of her death, they were considered "off," police clarified. Cops allegedly found the murder weapon in Gaal's home and Bonola's jacket, which he had left in the park.
Detectives also developed leads that led them to bloody bandages, boots and a T-shirt they believe Bonola was wearing at the time of Gaal's killing. They say he was treated at Bellevue Hospital for wounds to both hands but didn't describe the injuries other than to suggest they were the result of Gaal's desperate effort to save her life.
"This heinous killing devastated an entire family, left two boys without a mother, and horrified the surrounding community," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement announcing the plea deal. "I want to thank my prosecutors for their exhaustive efforts in securing this plea."
"In pleading guilty, the defendant has accepted responsibility and is being held fully accountable for his criminal actions," Katz added. "We express our sincerest condolences to the victim’s family and hope that today’s plea will allow them to begin to heal."
