A Huntington Station woman has pleaded guilty in a plot to kill her former husband’s mother, Suffolk County District Attorney Timothy D. Sini said Friday.
Elsy Rodriguez-Garcia, 27, pleaded guilty Thursday to Conspiracy in the Second Degree, a class B felony. She is expected to be sentenced to two to six years in prison.
“This is a shocking and disturbing case,” Sini said. “The defendant’s intentions were very clear that she wanted this person murdered, and she was ready and willing to pay for it. Thankfully law enforcement was notified and able to intervene before anyone got hurt, and today’s guilty plea ensures she is held accountable.”
When she was arrested, authorities said she planned the murder in order to bring her former husband back to her.
Sini said that in July 2019, Rodriguez-Garcia contacted a co-conspirator via WhatsApp to orchestrate the murder of her ex-husband’s mother and daughter. She asked the co-conspirator to hire hitmen to commit the murder in Ecuador, where she believed her targets were visiting. Rodriguez-Garcia provided photographs of one of the targets to the co-conspirator in furtherance of the plot as well as a description of the residence in which she believed the targets were staying.
Rodriguez-Garcia agreed to pay for the murders, by wiring the funds to the hitmen once she received proof that the murder had occurred.
Rodriguez-Garcia’s ex-husband learned of the plot and reported it to the Suffolk County Police Department’s Third Precinct. The District Attorney’s Office and the Suffolk County Police Department investigated the case.
A doctored photo purporting to show the targets of the conspiracy was sent by the co-conspirator to Rodriguez-Garcia as “proof” that the murder had been carried out. The photo, which was created by the Suffolk County Police Department’s Identification Section, appeared to show a deceased woman and child in the countryside of Ecuador.
Rodriguez-Garcia was arrested on July 13.
She is scheduled to be sentenced before Suffolk County Supreme Court Justice John Collins on April 15. She is being represented by William Ferro.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Anne E. Oh, of the Enhanced Prosecution Bureau.