A 27-year-old man was sentenced Friday to life in prison for killing a 25-year-old Puerto Rican woman whose dismembered body parts were found in two New York City parks four years ago.
Daquan Wheeler, 34, of the Bronx, was convicted of murder and other charges in April in the 2018 death of Lisa Marie Velasquez.
“It was a series of horrible acts,” said Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark, adding that she hoped the sentence would give Velasquez’s family and friends “some peace during this nightmare they’re living through.”
According to prosecutors, Wheeler killed Velasquez in an apartment he shared with the mother of his son, whom she had gone there to help with an unspecified problem.
Wheeler hit Velasquez in the head with a hammer and hit her repeatedly with the tool before wrapping an electrical cord around the girl’s neck, prosecutors said. He then dragged Velasquez’s body into a bathtub, dismembered it with a machete, and placed his remains in garbage bags.
Visitors found Velásquez’s arms and feet in three garbage bags under a dock in Barretto Point Park at Hunt’s Point. Two bags containing the head and torso were found about two miles (3.2 kilometers) apart in Crotona Park.
Prosecutors say the woman Wheeler lived with, Ciara Martinez, helped dispose of Velasquez’s body and clean the apartment where she was killed. She took the test under a cooperation agreement and will be sentenced Tuesday to time served on one count of conspiracy.
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