Riverside man admits to fatally stabbing girlfriend, DA says

A 34-year-old man has pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his girlfriend in August 2020 at their Riverside home, prosecutors announced Tuesday.

According to court filings and statements by the defendant, on August 10, 2020, Bayron Fajardo-Gonzalez, 34, attacked the victim at the couple’s residence with her 9-year-old daughter. The victim, Tania Fox, 45, and the defendant, who was not the child’s father, had argued earlier and when the victim and her daughter came home, they locked themselves in the child’s bedroom, prosecutors said.

Fajardo-Gonzalez broke into the bedroom through a window after he couldn’t get inside, prosecutors said. Fox and her daughter then ran and hid in the attic, where prosecutors said Fox called her cousin to say “ … if anything happens to me, Bayron is guilty. Please take care of [my daughter].”

Fajardo-Gonzalez entered a tenant's room to search for Fox, and then the attic, where he stabbed Fox, prosecutors said. Fox’s daughter escaped and called 911 as did the tenant, prosecutors said. Southampton Town police arrested Fajardo-Gonzalez at the scene.

“This plea will not bring the victim back, nor will it erase the brutal acts her young daughter witnessed,” said Suffolk District Attorney Raymond Tierney. “However, this defendant will now serve an extensive prison sentence and her family and loved ones can hopefully rest a little easier knowing that the defendant has been brought to justice.”

Fajardo-Gonzalez is expected to be sentenced on April 27, and faces 20 years to life in prison.