A 36-year-old Queens man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for shooting the mother of his baby boy in the eye on her own front lawn, killing her, prosecutors said Wednesday.
Robert Rodriguez admitted last month to killing 21-year-old Luz Cuza in the overnight hours of Sept. 17, 2017. The two were in Cuza's front yard, on 147th Street in Cambria Heights, around 2 a.m. when Cuza's brother spotted them.
He also saw Rodriguez had a gun, according to prosecutors, and spoke to him about it, then went inside the house. Minutes later, there was a gunshot. The brother ran back outside and found Cuza on the ground. She was shot in the eye.
It killed her.
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Rodriguez was walking away from the scene carrying a shoebox at the time, prosecutors said. Cuza's brother started banging on neighbors' doors for help, pleading for someone to call 911. Someone did.
Officers responding to Rodriguez's 225th Street address found a loaded semiautomatic pistol and 48 rounds of ammo in the shoebox he was holding when he left the scene. Forensics proved the gun was the same one used to kill Cuza.
"The defendant admitted killing the mother of his infant son during an argument in front of her home. This violent tragedy leaves three children without their mother," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement. "This sentencing cannot redress their loss but we hope it brings their family a measure of justice."
