An illegal immigrant was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison Thursday for murdering millionaire Westchester socialite Lois Colley on her farm, where he had worked as a day laborer.
Esdras Marroquin Gomez, 34, a native of Guatemala, bludgeoned the 83-year-old to death with a fire extinguisher in North Salem on Nov. 15, 2015.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month for bashing the socialite, whose playboy son infamously helped break up Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s marriage, in the head.
Before he was sentenced, prosecutor Julia Cornachio read a letter from Colley’s husband, who was in the courtroom, according to the Journal News/lohud.com.
Eugene Colley, who urged Judge George Fufidio to impose the maximum sentence, wrote that he called his wife by two nicknames: “love of my life” and “honey.”
Cornachio said: “This defendant bashed her face in. The callousness and evil that that required … is incomprehensible.”
It was believed that Gomez went to Windswept Farm, the family’s 300-acre estate, that day looking to be paid over an injury he suffered there a year before.
The victim’s granddaughter, Christine Colley, told the court, “I’m sad, I’m angry and I’m terrified” — and said she would do everything she could to make sure Gomez never sees the light of day again.
Gomez’s lawyer, Cynthia Lobo, told the court that “this is a very sad day,” adding that “there are two grieving families” and that his family is in Guatemala.
“How did this happen?” Lobo said before describing how Gomez grew up in Guatemala with nine siblings and studied to become a pastor before leaving his country in 2006 for the US to make more money for his family.
Gomez became a laborer for the Colley family around 2007 and earned $100 a day, Lobo said.In 2013, he badly cut his leg in an accident with a chainsaw on the Colley property, she said. After recovering, he tried to return to work, but was told the Colleys didn’t want him anymore, she said.
On the day of the murder, Gomez went to the farm to speak to Eugene Colley, not with the intention of killing the man’s wife, Lobo said.
But he “went out of control” on a “hideous day,” she added.
Four days later, Gomez caught a flight from JFK Airport to Guatemala. He was tracked to Mexico the following year and when he was deported to Guatemala, his flight stopped in Miami, where he was arrested by the FBI.
Colley’s son, Bruce, famously eroded Cuomo’s marriage to political scion Kerry Kennedy when he had an affair with her in 2003.
Eugene Colley amassed his wealth through an empire of more than 100 McDonald’s franchises.