A guy in New York who is 50 years old is accused of killing his 48-year-old wife by beating her so badly that he crushed her brain stem. Authorities say Jose Lequerica has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the brutal death of Asli Ak in November 2024.
This past Tuesday, police from the 115th Precinct of the NYPD arrested Lequerica at his home on 34th Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. After that, he went to see Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis for his arraignment and officially pleaded not guilty.
Queens County District Attorney’s Office said in a news report that Ak was killed at the couple’s home in the late evening of November 15, 2024. The police say that Lequerica “repeatedly struck his wife on her face, head, and body” in their bedroom during the attack.
Lequerica then left for two hours. When he got home, he didn’t stop to see how his wife was doing; instead, he went to sleep on the couch.
Police say that Lequerica went into his wife’s bedroom the next morning around 10:45 a.m. and found her unconscious on the floor. According to the release, he didn’t call for help, but instead left Ak to suffer on the ground for more than seven hours. It wasn’t until 6:22 p.m. that he finally called 911.
Emergency medical workers went to the couple’s apartment and quickly took the victim to Elmhurst Hospital, which is close by, for treatment. “Severe bruising to her face, head, and body” was what Ak had been through, and she never fully recovered. On November 20, 2024, she was finally pronounced brain-dead.
According to the autopsy done by the medical investigator, Ak was killed and his death was caused by “blunt force trauma to the head.”
“The autopsy revealed that she had severe head injuries including a hematoma that caused swelling inside the head, crushing her brain stem,” the release says.
Lequercia is being held without bail and is planned to go back to court on August 12.
In a statement, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said, “Domestic violence is a plague in our communities that must be dug out at the root.” “The defendant is accused of killing his wife on purpose by hitting her hard enough and then not calling 911 for more than seven hours after finding her unconscious.” A lot of the time, victims are made to feel alone and separated, which has heartbreaking effects. Please know that there are people and places that can help you get out of a dangerous home situation safely. My thoughts are with the victim’s family and friends as we try to find the person who did this guilty.
Ak’s brother set up a GoFundMe page to say that she changed many people’s lives and was “lost too soon.”
“From her days as a teacher to her time with children as a nanny, Asli touched the hearts of many,” it says. “She later became a greatly successful real estate broker, and even though her dream of owning her own real estate agency remained unrealized, her contributions were generous and many.”
