Brooklyn man pleads guilty to manslaughter in rock attack killing Queens grandmother
A Brooklyn man faces a 20-year sentence after pleading guilty to manslaughter for fatally striking a 62-year-old Asian-American grandmother in the head with a rock in last year in Queens, the borough’s DA said Thursday.
Guiying Ma was sweeping the sidewalk outside her Jackson Heights home on 38th Ave. near 97th St. on the morning of Nov. 26, 2021, when Elisaul Perez, 33, ambushed her, a criminal complaint said.
He smashed a large rock against the left side of her head, knocking her unconscious. Perez threw a second rock at her head while she lay on the ground bleeding.
The Thanksgiving weekend attack left Ma in a medically induced coma, from which she briefly emerged two months later. Ultimately, the trauma was too much to overcome, and she died in Elmhurst Hospital Center on Feb. 22, 2022 from complications.
Though Perez was not charged with a hate crime, the incident occurred during an alarming spike in anti-Asian incidents around the city.
Ma was buried in the Liaoning Province in China, where her widower lives with his son, daughter-in-law and grandkids, according to Ma’s Gofundme page.
Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky indicated that he would sentence Perez on Jan. 10 to 20 years in prison, with five years’ post-release supervision, the Queens DA’s office said.
“The defendant will now be held to account for an unprovoked attack that robbed a family of their loved one,” District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “The lengthy sentence to be imposed by the court is fully justified.”