Riverside man sentenced in fatal stabbing of girlfriend in front of 9-year-old daughter
Suffolk County police and Southampton Town Police at the scene of the fatal stabbing of Tania Fox in Riverside, Aug. 10, 2020. Credit: Stringer News Service
A Riverside man was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison for stabbing his girlfriend to death in 2020 in front of her 9-year-old daughter, the Suffolk district attorney's office said.
Bayron Fajardo-Gonzalez, 34, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder before Suffolk County Court Judge Anthony Senft last month in the death of Tania Fox, 45.
“This defendant brutally terrorized and murdered the innocent victim in front of her terrified daughter,” said Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney. “Today’s outcome cannot change that. However, it does ensure that the defendant will serve a significant sentence and will be called to account for his cowardly actions.”
Christopher Cassar, Fajardo-Gonzalez's Huntington-based defense attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fajardo-Gonzalez attacked the victim on Aug. 10, 2020 after she arrived back at the couple’s home with her daughter, according to court filings and statements from the defendant.
Fox and Fajardo-Gonzalez, who is not the child’s father, had been arguing earlier in the evening and once home, the victim and her daughter locked themselves in the child’s bedroom to avoid the defendant, prosecutors said.
When the defendant was unable to enter the child’s bedroom, he went outside and broke a window to the room, forcing the victim and her daughter to run upstairs to a small attic and hide, authorities said.
At one point during the confrontation, Fox quietly called her cousin and told her “if anything happens to me, Bayron is guilty. Please take care of [my daughter],” according to the filings.
Fajardo-Gonzalez entered a tenant's room to search for Fox, and then the attic, where he stabbed Fox multiple times in the chest while her daughter was standing next to her, prosecutors said.
Fox’s daughter escaped the attic and called 911, as did the tenant, prosecutors said. While the daughter was on the phone with 911, Fox could be heard screaming in the background, authorities said,
Southampton Town police arrived at the scene as Fajardo-Gonzalez was walking down from the attic covered in the victim’s blood. He admitted stabbing Fox and was arrested, police said.
Robert Brodsky is a breaking news reporter who has worked at Newsday since 2011. He is a Queens College and American University alum.
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