Authorities say a New York woman "orchestrated" a man's kidnapping and murder after becoming "angry" that he parked in front of her home
Credit: Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office
NEED TO KNOW
- A New York woman has been sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty of killing a man in September 2022
- Local authorities allege she “orchestrated” the man’s kidnapping and murder after becoming “angry” that he parked in front of her home
- Authorities allege the woman instructed an adult friend and three teenagers “to find, abduct, and kill the victim” moments after the parking dispute
A New York woman has been sentenced to life in prison this week after authorities say she kidnapped and killed a man for parking his car in front of her house.
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said in a news release on Tuesday that Kayla Alvarenga was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole in connection with the September 2022 death of 29-year-old Linver Ortiz Ponce.
Alvarenga, 23, was also convicted of first-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery and fourth-degree conspiracy after authorities said she “orchestrated” Ponce’s kidnapping and murder following an argument over him parking his car in front of her home.
“A man is dead because he parked in front of the wrong house. This defendant orchestrated his kidnapping and murder, directed co-defendants to hunt him down, and used minors to get it done,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney said in a statement. “The jury saw exactly what she did, and now she will spend the rest of her life in prison for it.”
The district attorney's office said Alvarenga became "angry" over Ponce parking in front of her home just before midnight on September 17, 2022 and “confronted the victim and ordered him to move his car.”
After refusing to move the vehicle, authorities allege that Alvarenga called her 28-year-old friend, Christopher Perdomo, and three other suspects between 16 and 17 years old “and instructed them to go to her house and remove the victim from the front of her home.”
The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office says the four suspects then drove to Ponce's house and “dragged the victim from his vehicle while he slept in the car, beat him, and then stole his vehicle.”
Ponce then “fled on foot to a nearby gas station where he attempted to hide behind vehicles,” before Alvarenga then “instructed her co-defendants to find, abduct, and kill the victim,” according to the district attorney's office.
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Authorities say Alvarenga and her co-defendants then tracked the victim down in the gas station parking lot and ordered him at gunpoint into a vehicle, driving him to a nearby church parking lot where they continued to beat the victim until “Alvarenga ordered Perdomo to kill him.”
The district attorney's office says “Perdomo then shot the victim multiple times as he attempted to crawl away, killing him.”
Perdomo was arrested in May 2024 and later pleaded guilty to Ponce's kidnapping and killing. He is set to be sentenced in mid-May.
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