Faustino Cruz appears in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead Monday, where...

Faustino Cruz appears in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead Monday, where he was sentenced to 13 years in prison for killing co-worker Carmelina Maria Velasquez-Zhau in 2020. Credit: Tom Lambui

A Manorville farmhand who admitted killing a co-worker after the two got into a physical altercation in 2020 was sentenced to 13 years in prison Monday, one month after he accepted a plea offer of manslaughter on the third day of his trial in Riverhead.

Faustino Marquez Cruz, 30, had been charged with second-degree murder in the July 28, 2020, killing of Carmelina Maria Velasquez-Zhau, 37, whose body was found days later in a wooded area on the outskirts of the 5-acre farm where they both worked.

Prosecutors argued at trial before acting Suffolk Supreme Court Justice Stephen Braslow that Cruz choked Velasquez-Zhau to death after she confronted him about a greenhouse door that was left shut, causing produce from the farm to spoil. During the argument, she threatened to call police, who she said might have him deported, prosecutors had argued.

Jaime Velasquez, the victim’s brother, said his sister took care of Cruz on the farm and thought of him as a sibling. He said her death has “destroyed” their family.

“I’m just asking for God to forgive you one day,” Velasquez told Cruz.

Brother-in-law Luis Guaman said Velasquez Zhau's death has been particularly hard on his wife and son.

"What really hurts me most right now is that I cannot explain to my child why this happened," Guaman told Cruz.  

Asked several times by Braslow if he wished to address Velasquez-Zhau’s family, Cruz declined. His attorneys, Daniel Russo and Danielle Coysh, declined to comment after the sentencing. 

“You need to, in whatever way you can, seek forgiveness for something that you did to this young lady for no reason,” Braslow told Cruz. “Just think about what you did to this young lady’s family. You’re gonna have a lot of time there.”

During opening arguments May 1, Assistant Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy Gough told the jurors Velasquez-Zhau died of “homicidal violence consistent with asphyxiation" at the hands of Cruz. Gough said Velasquez-Zhau, who lived with the owner of the farm and his family in the property's main house — separate from living quarters Cruz shared with another worker — had yelled at Cruz after she learned certain vegetables had “burned.”

As the verbal altercation turned physical, Gough told jurors on the first day of the trial, Velasquez-Zhau struck Cruz with a pan. The other worker, Javier Moreno, left the house as Cruz retaliated, the prosecutor said.

One of the last things Moreno heard was Velasquez-Zhau telling Cruz: " ‘I'm going to call the cops, you're going to get deported,' ” Gough said.

As Moreno walked away, Gough told jurors, he heard Velasquez cry for help.

Prosecutors said Velasquez-Zhau's body was discovered July 30, 2020, by a jogger about 10 feet into the woods off Winding Path in Manorville, where prosecutors said Cruz had moved her. She was reported missing earlier that day after her sister was notified by the owner of the farm that she did not report to work the day before. 

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