Foreign invader charged in vicious murder case

[Rick Dean]

6

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/23776.htm

GRISLY MURDER ORDEAL

By LISA PULITZER
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June 25, 2004 -- A slain Westhampton woman whose car was found torched several months ago was also raped, tortured and brutalized by her jilted co-worker, police said yesterday as they slapped him with murder charges.
Faustino Chavez, an illegal immigrant from Guatemala, did not react when prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder and arson in t
e Feb. 27 slaying of Vinessa Hoera. He pleaded not guilty.

Clutching a large photo of her daughter, Donna Hoera broke down in tears upon learning the heinous details of her precious daughter's d

eath. Her anguish intensified as prosecutors revealed Chavez cut Hoera's thro
at "so deep that he sliced her larynx in half."

"Her neck had been cut at least five times from ear to ear. She was nearly decapitated," said Suffolk County Assistant DA Kerriann Kelly.

Chavez's DNA was found on the 23-year-old's body, and bruises on her body "were consistent with a struggle," said Kelly. "It was a crime of severe violence, indicating hostility and hate for the person."

Kelly said Hoera and Chavez, who worked together at a Westhampton fish market, had a "hostile relationship."

The grisly new details of Hoera's murder were met with a collective gasp from family and friends, who said they were hearing them for the first
time and were stunned at the savagery of the crime.



"I'm very shocked and it was painful to hear," said Donna Hoera. "I keep replaying it in my head."

Co-
workers had said Chavez showed a romantic interest in Hoera, lavishing her with diamond earrings for Christmas, but his affections were not returned.

The pretty single mom disappeared
in February after leaving her job at a seafood market to pick up her 5-year-old son from day care.

Her car was found on fire the next morning, but Hoera was missing. Later that day, Chavez was pulled from a burning vehicle in Ronkonkoma.

Chavez has confessed to the murder, claiming "he had to" do it, said Kelly.

After the murder, she said, he dumped her body in a wooded area in Westhampton behind a soccer field where he was known to play. Her body was found April 4.

A judge set bail at $1 million.

 

[Whitebear]

6

Faustino Chavez

Vinessa Hoera

Man charged in brutal rape, killing
As Faustino Chavez is charged with killing Vinessa Hoera, 23, the brutal details in court sicken grieving mother


June 25, 2004


When the prosecutor to
d a packed courtroom what had actually happened to Vinessa Hoera just before she died, the 23-year-old murder victim's mother doubled over in her front row seat and began to sob.

"I'm in

shock," said Donna Hoera, outside the Riverhead courtroom minutes later, carrying her daughter's photo and wearing a vial of her ashes around her neck. "I'm sick, I didn't know
a lot of what they said."











At the arraignment of Faustino Chavez, the man accused of killing Vinessa Hoera, Assistant District Attorney Kerriann Kelly revealed for the first time that the Mastic Beach woman was raped, beaten and her neck was cut "from ear to ear, so deep that it cut her larynx in half."

The grand jury indictment, unsealed yesterday, charges Chavez with one count of first- degree murder, one count of second-degree murder and one count of third-degree arson, for allegedly setting Vinessa Hoera's car on fire with gaso
line. Acting Supreme Court Justice Michael Mullen set bail of $1 million cash.

Chavez, 26, was not charged with rape separately. It is an element of first-degree murder and prosecutors m
ust
prove he intentionally murdered Vinessa Hoera in the course of raping or attempting to rape her.

Chavez, who entered a plea of not guilty, stood next to a court translator saying nothing during the arraignment as Kelly described the February
killing. His attorney, George Duncan of Islandia, said later his client maintains his innocence, adding, "Obviously, he is very upset. He's being charged with a very serious crime."

Chavez, of Guatemala, was a co-worker of Vinessa Hoera and her father, Mark, at a Westhampton Beach seafood store. Hoera was missing for seven weeks before Chavez - in jail at the time on the arson charge - told Mark Hoera in April where her body could be found in Westhampton.

Kelly said evidence against Chavez was "overwhelming" and included semen fo
und inside the victim that was matched, through DNA, to Chavez. He also made admissions of guilt to police and others to the murder and the arson, she said.

Kelly said Chavez suffered
burns c
onsistent with setting the car fire, and gasoline was found on his clothing. Chavez was rescued from his own burning car in Ronkonkoma the same morning Vinessa Hoera's car was found torched and abandoned on a Southampton road. He was arrested April 6 for the arson.

The vict
im's mother and other family members were in court for the arraignment. "He's just a rat who belongs in the gutter in the city," DeAnna Hoera, the victim's sister, said afterward. Donna Hoera described her daughter, who had a 5-year-old son, as being "on the up. She was a single mom, just bought a new car. She was a life-lover, a very positive person."

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Arraignment For The Man Accused Of Killing A Young Mom On Long Island

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Riverhead-WABC, June 24, 2004) --Today is the arraignment for the man accused of killing a young mom on Long Island. The indictment against [b]Faustino Chavez[/b] is about to be unsealed.

It was a story that many Long Island resident may remember where a young mother in Riverhead was allegedly killed by a
smitten co-worker.

This morning, a grand jury indictment will be unsealed against the man police think killed her.

[color=red][b]Vinessa Hoera's [/b][/color]body was found in April almost two months after she vanished. Since then, Faustino Chavez has sat in jail charged until now, not with murder, but with setting Hoera's car on fire.

Seven weeks after her burning car was found abandoned. Police discovered Hoera's body dumpe
d in a wooded area next to Gabreski Airport in Westhampton.

The young mother disappeared February 27th after she left her father's fish-store, to pick up her son a
t daycare. She
never arrived but her car was found the next morning in Southampton, burning and abandoned.

Two hours later, Chavez was found inside a burning car an hour's drive west, in Ronkonkoma.

After his release from Stony Brook Hospital, Chavez was arrested and charged with torching Hoera's Camry. He refused to talk with investigators. But Hoera's father says Chavez revealed the locat
ion of the body during an emotional meeting in the Riverhead jail. Family members say chavez had a romantic interest in Hoera but it was an attraction she did not return.

It is expected that grand jury indictment will be unsealed against Chavez today sometime after 9:30 a.m.

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