A former pastor at a Bronx church faces 23 years in prison after he pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree manslaughter for running over his estranged wife with a vehicle and stabbing her with a machete in front of her two grandchildren in 2019.
According to the investigation, on the morning of Oct. 3, 2019, the defendant, Victor Mateo, last of 4 Eastman Place in Yonkers, a former pastor at the Christian Congregation The Redeemer Church in the Bronx, parked his vehicle near the home of Noelia Mateo, 58, on Ellsworth Avenue in Throgs Neck. As the victim left her house to drive her grandchildren to school, Victor Mateo, 65, struck her with his vehicle.
The victim hid beneath her car, and the defendant got into her vehicle and ran her over with it. He then hacked her with a machete. The victim was taken to Jacobi Medical Center where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival. Her grandchildren — nine and 11 at the time — witnessed the entire attack.
Victor Mateo fled the scene in the victim’s vehicle and was arrested on Oct. 10, 2019 in Hazleton, Pennsylvania.
“The defendant and the victim, his wife, had been estranged for approximately a month when he mercilessly killed her in front of her two young grandchildren and bystanders in broad daylight,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark. “The victim’s grandchildren not only had to deal with the loss of their grandmother, but also with immense trauma after witnessing such cruel events.”
Victor Mateo is due back in court Jan. 5, 2022.
