Man pleads not guilty in Riverhead slaying

It was clear that something was wrong when a normally punctual Flanders woman didn't show up for work earlier this month at an Aquebogue marina, the woman's sister said Friday after the man charged with killing her pleaded not guilty.

Zully Garcia said she called and called her sister's number, and eventually went to Sabor Latino, the Riverhead restaurant her 29-year-old sister liked. She didn't know it, but that was the last place her sister had been May 6 before her body was found the next morning. Friday, Suffolk Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock said a man at the restaurant followed Mirian Yohanna Garcia into the parking lot, raped her and strangled her with his belt.

Guillermo Alvarado Ajcuc, 21, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in Mirian Garcia's death. Suffolk County Court Judge John Toomey Jr. ordered him held without bail.

Ajcuc followed Garcia out of Sabor Latino into the parking lot, which also serves the Department of Motor Vehicles. There, he attacked her, pulled off some of her clothing and raped her, Kurtzrock said. Garcia, described by family members as athletic, resisted, he said.

In response, Kurtzrock said, Ajcuc "pulled off his belt, wrapped it around her neck and strangled her." He left her body there, at the edge of the parking lot.

Later, Kurtzrock said, Ajcuc told someone at a deli that he had hurt a girl, and word spread throughout the Guatemalan community in Riverhead. Some came forward and told Suffolk homicide detectives what they had heard. After detectives arrested Ajcuc May 16, Kurtzrock said, he confessed. In the meantime, Kurtzrock said, Ajcuc had altered his appearance, cutting off his ponytail and shaving his head.

Defense attorney Eileen Powers declined to seek bail Friday for her client, noting that federal immigration authorities would take him into custody if he were released because they say he is in the country illegally.

Garcia's family and friends watched the arraignment, stifling tears.

"She's a very good person," Zully Garcia said. "She tried to help everybody. When I need something from her, she was there."

They worked together at Larry's Lighthouse Marina in Aquebogue, fixing and maintaining boats. When Zully Garcia had a miscarriage three months ago, she said her sister cared for her.

"It's very, very hard," she said. "She's like a second mother to me."