The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Court documents: ‘Violent struggle’ in apartment before Valerie Reyes died
Javier Da Silva to be sentenced later this month in kidnapping and killing of New York woman whose body was found in Greenwich
GREENWICH — As the sentencing nears for the man who killed a young woman and disposed of her body in Greenwich nearly two years ago, court records indicate a more violent struggle took place on the night of her death than previously revealed.
When he is sentenced Jan. 27 in U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y., Javier Da Silva, 25, faces 30 years to life in prison for his role in the death of Valerie Reyes in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2019.
Prosecutors say Da Silva went to Reyes’ apartment in New Rochelle, N.Y., covered her mouth with tape, bound her and put her in a suitcase, resulting in death by homicidal asphyxiation. The two had briefly dated a year earlier.
But she fought for her life, according to recent court filings. In a transcript from Da Silva’s guilty plea in court nearly a year ago, a federal prosecutor said traces of DNA were found under Reyes’ fingernails, indicating she fought back against him. In addition, Da Silva had a cut under his left eye after the deadly assault in her apartment, according to federal law enforcement.
When Reyes’ was found, she had also suffered a severe head injury, but it was not a fatal blow, according to the medical examiner.
Da Silva made a statement to Judge Vincent Briccetti during a court appearance when he entered his guilty plea to a charge of kidnapping on Feb. 5, 2020, exactly one year after her body was found.
“On Jan. 28, 2019, in New Rochelle, N.Y., after a violent struggle in her apartment while Valerie Reyes was still alive, I bound her feet and hands and placed tape over her mouth and placed her in a suitcase and went to Greenwich, Connecticut.”
Da Silva said he made the statement with the help of his lawyers. “My above actions, which I knew to be illegal, resulted in the death of Ms. Reyes,” he continued.
Reyes’ body was found by a town road crew on Feb. 5, 2019. She had been reported missing by her family in New Rochelle on Jan. 30.
The court papers revealed Da Silva had been stealing from Reyes’ bank account five months before her death. The two had dated from January 2018 to April 2018, according to information presented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Mathew Andrews.
According to bank records, Andrews told the judge, “The defendant used the victim’s debit card without authorization on or about Sept. 2018, approximately five months” before her death at his hands. The amount taken was not disclosed.
Da Silva rented a car and drove to New Rochelle on the night of Jan. 28, prosecutors said. He put his cellphone on airplane mode, indicating malicious intent, prosecutors noted.
The federal prosecutor said a check on Reyes’ bank balance was made in the early morning hours on Jan. 29 using her cellphone. A short time later, around 5 a.m., a person dressed “entirely in black” made a $1,000 withdrawal from a New Rochelle bank branch, according to federal authorities. Authorities said Da Silva was the person who made the withdrawal, and his cellphone records later traced Da Silva’s travel to Greenwich that morning, when he disposed of her body, which was still inside the suitcase.
Over the next several days, a total of $5,350 was withdrawn from her account, authorities said. Da Silva also stole Reyes’ iPad and sold it, authorities said.
In addition, according to the court transcripts, Da Silva rented the same Honda CR-V that he used on the night of the killing and took it to a car wash several days later — indicating an intended cover-up of the crime, prosecutors said.
Da Silva, an immigrant from Venezuela who overstayed his visa and was in the U.S. illegally, was living in Queens, N.Y., and working in a coffee shop at the time of the murder.
He was arrested Feb. 12, 2019, the day of Reyes’ calling hours, at his apartment
in the Flushing neighborhood by federal authorities. The crime involved activities in two states and the investigation drew on the authority and expertise of the FBI.
Da Silva was charged with one count of kidnapping resulting in death. The law, originally known as the Lindbergh Act, was passed in the early 1930s to allow federal authorities to pursue kidnappers once they had crossed state lines with their victim, as state and local law enforcement could not effectively work across state lines. The law was passed after the kidnapping and death of Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr., the infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh and author Anne Morrow Lindbergh, in 1932.
Federal authorities say the Reyes’ killing fit all the criteria in the kidnapping statute, including the provision that “ransom” was a component of the crime. The ransom, in this case, was a benefit to Da Silva that Reyes would not be able to report the crime committed against her to law enforcement authorities. Under federal law, a ransom involving a kidnapping is not required to have a monetary value, Andrews told Judge Briccetti, according to the transcript.
Reyes worked at a bookstore in Eastchester, N.Y., at the time of her death. A 2012 New Rochelle High School graduate, she was described by family and friends as a warm and gentle young woman who loved animals and was a talented artist.
Da Silva initially told federal investigators that he was with Reyes in her apartment on Jan. 29, 2019, when she “fell to the floor and hit her head,” according to the criminal complaint. Reyes had suffered a severe injury to her head, the federal complaint stated.
Members of the Reyes family told authorities that she had been in a state of anxiety and fear before she went missing.
Da Silva is facing 30 years to life in prison, under the agreement he and his lawyers reached with
federal prosecutors. The judge, who does not have to follow the stipulation agreement reached by the lawyers, is expecting to see presentencing reports about Da Silva from prosecutors and defense lawyer before making a determination this month.
The kidnapping statute carries the possibility of the death penalty.
Da Silva grew up in comfortable circumstances in a suburb of Caracas, Venezuela, according to social media postings, and attended college in that nation but did not graduate. He came to the U.S. in 2017. He speaks some English but has been using a Spanishlanguage translator in court proceedings, according to the court records.
His Instagram account, now inoperative, included pictures of landscapes around Westchester County, N.Y., in towns running along the Hutchinson River Parkway, indicating a familiarity with the area and its roadways.
A message requesting comment from defense lawyer Mark DeMarco was not returned this week.