Posted on: October 16, 2026 12:00 PM

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Glen Cove man sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for murdering mother in law

Nassau County District Attorney Anne T. Donnelly announced that a Glen Cove man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for stabbing his estranged mother-in-law to death after she left her daughter’s birthday celebration at the La Candela II restaurant in West Hempstead in September 2024.

 

Erick Corado Gonzalez, 29, pleaded guilty on September 3, 2026, before Judge Caryn Fink to charges of Murder in the Second Degree (an A-I felony) and Attempted Murder in the Second Degree (a B violent felony).

 

The defendant was sentenced today to 25 years to life in prison. NCDA recommended a sentence of 30 years to life in prison.

 

“Ana Espinoza should be here today enjoying the life she built with her children and watching her grandchildren grow. Instead, Erick Corado Gonzalez turned her family’s night of celebration into a lifetime of grief,” said DA Donnelly. “The defendant ambushed his mother-in-law in a restaurant parking lot, brutally taking her life in front of her loved ones and his three-year-old son all because of his own selfish rage. No amount of time behind bars can erase the trauma this defendant inflicted, but today’s sentence ensures he will spend decades in prison, far away from the family he shattered. Our hearts remain with Ana’s loved ones as they continue to heal from this unspeakable tragedy.”

 

DA Donnelly said that on September 28, 2024, the victims, 51-year-old Ana Espinoza and her husband, and other family members were celebrating Espinoza’s adult daughter’s birthday at the La Candela II restaurant in West Hempstead.

 

The defendant, Espinoza’s daughter’s estranged husband, was not invited to the celebration.

 

Just after midnight on September 29, 2024, the partygoers were leaving the restaurant and heading for their vehicles.

 

The defendant then approached Ana Espinoza in the parking lot and stabbed her seven times in the torso.

 

When her husband tried to intervene, the defendant stabbed him in the hand.

 

Espinoza’s adult son also tried to help his mother, and the defendant pointed an imitation pistol at the man and threatened him not to follow him.

 

The defendant then fled the scene.

 

The attack took place in the presence of the defendant’s three-year-old son.

 

Espinoza and her husband were both taken to Winthrop Hospital for treatment. Espinoza suffered hemorrhagic shock from being stabbed in the neck and was pronounced deceased at 3:58 a.m.

 

The defendant fled the state after the stabbing and was arrested on September 29, 2024, in Linden, New Jersey by local authorities. He was extradited to Nassau County on October 22, 2024.

 

A knife was recovered from the restaurant’s parking lot, and an imitation pistol was recovered from the defendant’s car trunk.

From DA