‘I think I killed my wife’
Run-down, stab hubby ‘confesses’
The Queens man who allegedly ran down his estranged spouse with an SUV and then stabbed her called the cops himself and told them, “I think I killed my wife,” prosecutors said in court Wednesday.
When officers arrived on Parsons Boulevard early Tuesday, Stephen Giraldo, 36, allegedly told them, “I hit my wife — arrest me.”
An MTA bus driver and employee for 11 years, Giraldo wore a white Tyvek jumpsuit when he made his first appearance before Judge Scott Dunn in Queens Criminal Court.
He kept his head down as Assistant District Attorney Audra Beerman told the judge that the couple’s three boys were in the car during the ordeal, with the oldest, Stephen, 11, sitting in the front seat.
Moments before his wife was struck, Giraldo told the kids, “Everyone keep your seat belts on,” Beerman said.
Giraldo had parked across the street from 41-year-old Sophia Giraldo’s Flushing home and called to tell her to come down.
When she approached the SUV, the husband sped up and hit her so hard, she flew over a fence, Beerman alleged. His white Ford Explorer struck the wrought-iron fence and flipped onto the driver’s side.
He then climbed over his son Stephen, crawled out the passenger window, walked to where Sophia was lying and stabbed her twice beneath the right breast, Beerman said.
He ditched the knife on the side of the house, where police later found it, she said. He stayed at the scene until the cops arrived, which is when he allegedly confessed.
Severely wounded
Sophia, a life coach and domestic-abuse survivor, remains in critical condition with severe neurological damage, broken leg bones and a stab wound that punctured her liver, prosecutors said.
She may be severely neurologically incapacitated if she pulls through, Beerman said.
Friends and family are taking care of the oldest boy and his brothers, aged 9 and 6. None was hurt physically.
Authorities have charged Giraldo with attempted murder, assault, weapons possession, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child. If convicted, he faces up to 25 years in prison.
The judge remanded Giraldo to custody, where he was put on suicide watch.
“The brutality of the attack, and the fact that it was committed in full view of the victim’s three young children, stirs heartbreak and outrage in all of us,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Giraldo will remain suspended without pay until the investigation is over, the MTA said.