Day laborer gets 22 years to life for 2015 Westchester fire extinguisher murder
NORTH SALEM, Westchester County (WABC) -- The man charged in the murder of a woman from Westchester County who was found dead in her home in 2015 has learned his fate.
Esdras Marroquin Gomez was sentenced to the maximum: 22 years to life in prison in a Westchester County court.
Gomez pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder in the death of Lois Colley, of North Salem.
The 83-year-old Colley was discovered around 5 p.m. on November 9, 2015, bludgeoned to death in the laundry room of her home on Windswept Farm, a 300-acre estate in North Salem.
She had been beaten with a fire extinguisher.
She lived with her husband, Eugene Colley, a millionaire who is one of the biggest owners of McDonald's properties in the country and known as a master fox huntsman.
Gomez worked as a day laborer for the Colley family.
At Thursday's sentencing, Gomez's lawyer said her client didn't intend to kill Colley, but "lost control" when he went to the house to ask for money he felt he was owed after being injured on the job.
One of Colley's sons and a graddaughter delivered victim impact statements, saying Colley was in perfect health and her many remaining years were stolen from her family and the community as well.
And they described another effect of the murder.
"The brutal killing of Mom has traumatized all of us and will never leave us," Bryan Colley told the court. "We all live in fear that there are other brutal murderers around the corner. After this trauma, none of us will ever experience life in the same way."
Gomez's lawyer portrayed a clash of cultures, highlighting Eugene Colley's hiring of undocumented workers and his harsh treatment of them, saying it led to her client's buildup of pain and anger.
Gomez made a statement himself, repeatedly asking for forgiveness before being sentenced. Gomez is an undocumented Guatemalan immigrant. He became a suspect after he fled to Guatemala and later to Mexico.
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