FORMER BRONX BUILDING SUPERINTENDENT CONVICTED OF MURDER IN THE STRANGULATION DEATH OF HIS 14-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER
Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today the murder conviction of a father who strangled his 14-year-old daughter who was pregnant with his unborn fetus.
Miguel Matias, 35, pled guilty to one count of Murder in the 2nd degree in the death of Ana Matias on February 16, 2008.
Matias entered the plea before Acting State Supreme Court Justice Steven Barrett who set sentencing for Wednesday, November 4, 2009 in Part 60. The defendant will be sentenced to a term of 25 years to life imprisonment, the maximum possible sentence for murder in the 2nd degree.
The crime occurred at 1005 Walton Avenue where Matias lived and was also employed as the building’s superintendent. Investigators recovered what remained of the child’s charred body from a furnace where Matias had placed it following the murder. It was discovered that the victim was 12 weeks pregnant and that the defendant, according to DNA testing, was the biological father of the unborn child. Matias and the girl’s mother had lived together in Pennsylvania before their relationship ended and Matias moved to New York. After the separation, Ana Matias and two other siblings would often come to the Bronx on weekends to visit their father.
Matias first admitted to killing his daughter during a telephone call to his uncle and sister when he asked them to come to his Walton Avenue apartment. Matias made a second admission in a later call to a 911 operator.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Christiana Stover and Veronica Guariglia of the Gangs /Major Case Bureau.
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