Former New York Pastor Who Hacks Wife To Death With Machete Says He is Guilty

A 65-year-old pastor from the Bronx, New York,
has pleaded guilty on one account of first-degree
manslaughter after he ran over his estranged wife
with her car and then hacked her with a machete
in front of her neighbors and two grandchildren in
2019.
On the morning of October 3, 2019, pastor Victor
Mateo of Christian Congregation The Redemptor,
Inc. attacked Noelia Mateo, 58, as she was
leaving her house to drive her two grandchildren
to school. Mateo, who had parked his car outside
Noelia’s home, struck his estranged wife with his
vehicle.
Then as Noelia hid beneath her car, Mateo got
into her vehicle and ran her over. After running her
over, he repeatedly struck her with a machete,
The Christian Post reports.
According to a statement by the Bronx District
Attorney’s Office , Noelia suffered multiple
lacerations to her body and was later pronounced
dead at the Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx.
Witnesses to the domestic attack included
neighbors and Noelia’s grandchildren, who were
11 and 9 years old at the time.
“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.
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,” District Attorney Darcel D. Clark in a
statement.
Mateo has pleaded guilty and is due to be
sentenced in January 2022. He is set to receive
23 years in prison and five years of supervision
following his release.
“I was screaming at him to distract him from
beating on her. And then after he took off with
the car, I called 911, and I screamed at the
operator, asking them, ‘Where the hell is that
ambulance? Where’s the police?’” a neighbor,
Victor DiChristina, 78, told the New York Times
after the incident took place.
“It was a terrible sight,” another neighbor, Dave
Colon, said.
Kathy Bellwood, whose husband’s white van was
struck by Mateo during the attack, noted that
Noelia appeared to be crying or praying as she
bled profusely.
“She was suffering because she was crying or
praying in Spanish,” Bellwood said.