Queens Gazette

25 Years For Crazed Hubby In Salon Slay


A crazed Queens man who butchered his estranged wife with a knife inside a Jackson Heights salon last summer has been sentenced to 25 years in prison, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.

William Rivas, 39, pleaded guilty in Queens Supreme Court on February 13th to first-degree manslaughter in the fatal domestic violence attack against his estranged wife, Carmen Iris Santiago, who he repeatedly stabbed in front of horrified customers and workers at her Jackson Heights workplace, Katz said.

Rivas was captured on surveillance footage walking into the Tu S’tilo Salon and Spa on 37th Avenue near 93rd Street in Jackson Heights just before 7 p.m. on August 7, 2019, where he argued with Santiago until the owner of the shop escorted him out of the salon.

Katz said, according to the charges, that Rivas barged back into the salon moments later and pulled a long knife that he used to repeatedly stab Santiago in the chest.

Police responding to the attack found Rivas standing over the bleeding body of his estranged wife. Rivas, dressed in a torn green shirt, then threw himself on top of Santiago, embracing and speaking softly to the mother of two young children as the life slipped from her body, police said.

Police ordered Rivas to “move out of the way,” but were forced to pull him off Santiago by the shirt. A second officer shouted, “Anyone who saw anything, stay here!” as an EMS crew tried desperately to save the young woman.

Santiago was rushed to Elmhurst Hospital Center where she died moments after her arrival.

Cops said Santiago came to New York City from the Dominican Republic in 2014 to be with Rivas. The couple were married in 2015 and settled in an apartment in Corona, Queens. Santiago left Rivas in January 2019 because he was abusive, a police source said. Rivas continued to torment Santiago after the separation, the source said.

Friends and co-workers begged her again two weeks before the attack to report Rivas to the police when she arrived at the salon beaten and bruised, saying he had tried to strangle her. “They begged her to go to the precinct for help, to get an order of protection, the source said. “They even offered to take her to the stationhouse.”

Santiago told police Rivas had become jealous, aggressive since the separation, the source said. “And while she was afraid of him, she never saw this coming.”

Cops said Rivas tried repeatedly to get Santiago to move back in with him, but she refused. “She wouldn’t tell him where she was living, so he called her repeatedly on her cell phone and tormented her by hanging around near the salon.”

Rivas, who was hospitalized for an injury he suffered during the fatal attack, was held without bail.

Rivas received the maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, to be followed by five years post release supervision.

–Liz Goff

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