Socialite slay bust
‘Laborer in manse murder’
An illegal immigrant from Guatemala was charged on Monday in the 2015 bludgeoning death of a Westchester socialite whose playboy son helped break up Gov. Cuomo’s marriage.
Esdras Marroquin Gomez — who had worked as a day laborer at the sprawling estate owned by victim Lois Colley and her husband — was hauled into court two years after the grisly homicide.
Gomez, 32, was secretly indicted for second-degree murder last year, but the paperwork remained sealed until after he was arrested in Miami on Friday, Westchester District Attorney Anthony Scarpino said.
Scarpino said the slaying stemmed from a “dispute,” possibly over money, that erupted when Gomez visited Windswept Farm, Colley’s 300-acre spread overlooking the Titicus Reservoir in North Salem.
Scarpino said Gomez went to the hilltop mansion, “possibly to speak with someone else in the family,” but “confronted Lois” instead.
Gomez allegedly battered Colley, 83, with a fire extinguisher, the pin to which an investigator found lying next to her body in a mud room outside the kitchen.
The extinguisher was later discovered, with Colley’s DNA on it, wrapped in plastic at the bot- tom of a pond on the property, Scarpino said.
Colley also was hit with a wine bottle during the attack, a source familiar with the probe said.
State police led the investigation, and the source said Gomez emerged as the prime suspect almost immediately.
Colley was married to Eugene Colley, 89, who made a fortune as a McDonald’s restaurant franchisee.
Eugene Colley called 911 after getting a panicked call from a caretaker who found Mrs. Colley’s body on Nov. 9, 2015.
The couple’s four sons include Bruce Colley, an official with the US Polo Association and a fox hunter whose affair with Kerry Kennedy destroyed her marriage to Andrew Cuomo in 2003.
Bruce Colley also split from his wife, Ann Colley, as a result of the infamous fling.
Gomez fled to Guatemala following the killing, then sneaked into Mexico, where he was recently busted as an illegal immigrant, FBI official Michael McGarrity said.
He was deported to Guatemala by way of Miami, where he was nabbed by the feds.
Defense lawyer Diane Webster said Gomez pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Monday and was ordered held without bailpending another court appearance next month.