22 Years To Life For Man Who Bludgeoned 83-Year-Old Lois Colley To Death With Fire Extinguisher
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- The farm worker who admitted bludgeoning an 83-year-old woman to death with a fire extinguisher was sentenced to 22 years to life in prison Thursday.
Lois Colley was murdered in 2015.
Last month, Esdras Marroquin "Victor" Gomez, a 35-year-old immigrant from Guatemala, admitted he used a fire extinguisher to beat her to death in her laundry room in 2015.
The part-time farmhand wanted money from Colley, and ended up beating her with a fire extinguisher so badly they had to have a closed casket at her funeral.
Bryan Colley, one of Lois Colley's four sons, delivered an emotional victim impact statement.
"There's no words that can ever express, or begin to express, or adequately express the extent of the loss suffered by my mother and the pain that she suffered, not to mention the suffering by our family and myself as a result of the vicious and brutal killing of my wonderful, kind and thoughtful mother, Lois Colley by Victor Gomez," Bryan Colley said. "However the word 'loss' sounds so very trite in these circumstances, like 'I lost my mittens.' Instead, the correct language seems to be what was stolen or taken from my mother, my family and myself. Her life was taken when she was in her early 80s, completely healthy, fit, mentally and physically. We had every reason she would live well into her late 90s and beyond, like her mother and her grandmother."
Bryan Colley said his mother led by example and didn't drink or smoke and was proud of her gardening.
Watch: Full Sentencing Of Victor Gomez
"The entire community has lost their mom and grandmother as well as us. We've all lost the warmth of her kindness, her beautiful, kind smile, her thoughtful attention to detail at every family holiday. Birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter will never be the same without her cooking up a huge array of great homemade food set on a perfectly decorated table," he continued. "The rest of mom's life was stolen from her, and from us. Mom was not able to attend her grandchildren's recent graduations, nor will she ever be able to attend any of their weddings. She will never get to console or advise them or their children. We all will not benefit from her love, kindness and wisdom. She will never, ever get to meet her great-grandchildren, like her mother and her grandmother did. Both her mother and her grandmother lived into their late 90s, and we all hoped, dreamed, and bluntly pretty much expected that mom would too. I must say that I have every reason to believe that she would have but for the heinous acts of Victor Gomez."
Bryan Colley said she was buried in a simple pine coffin with a tombstone made from a boulder in her back yard.
"Mom's nickname was St. Lois. How anyone in any state of mind could ever kill such a kind and gentle, elderly, giving, elderly mother and grandmother in the golden years of her life is incomprehensible and the definition of evil," Bryan Colley said. "This is an unending nightmare of unimaginable pain and suffering."
Christine Colley, Lois Colley's granddaughter, also spoke.
"I want to start by saying I'm sad, I'm angry, and I'm terrified. This is without a doubt the most difficult thing I've done and, God willing, will ever do in my entire life," she said. "What I want is for her to be here, for you to all witness her splendor."
She implored the judge to give "the disgraceful defendant... the maximum sentence allowable under law and do everything in your power to make sure he never get paroled for killing my grandmother, Lois Elizabeth Colley."
Eugene Colley, Lois's husband of 65 years, wrote a letter to the court but felt he could not read it himself. Prosecutors read it for him. In the letter, he described going to fight in WWII and later meeting Lois and getting married.
"I am now 91 years old. Despite the many horrors I witnessed as a young man at war, the most painful and horrible thing in my life was to get that call on the way home from work on Nov. 9, 2015 that Lois was hurt and laying on the floor. I rushed home and saw her lying there in a pool of blood. I immediately started CPR from my naval training, in the meantime yelling and trying to get help. The blood pool kept enlarging, and I realized that the love of my life wasn't going to come back. I refused to leave her side, and kept hoping and praying that by some miracle she would come back to us. Then all the first responders came. Then five or six hours later the coroner came and did what he does," Eugene Colley wrote. "They had to physically restrain me to get me to leave Lois' side. The next task I had to face was telling my four sons and their families. They all started arriving to help me. The next painful task was picking out a coffin for my loved one."
Lois Colley was buried in a closed casket ceremony due to the extensive damage to her face and head, Eugene wrote. He also asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence and deny any future parole.
It happened at the Colley family horse farm in North Salem.
The suspect fled to Guatemala and then Mexico after the murder, but he was captured after a social media post tipped off state police and the FBI to his location.
Investigators searched relentlessly for the key piece of evidence in the case.
"New York State Police found what appeared to be a pin from a discharged fire extinguisher near her body. In the days that followed they searched the horse farm extensively. They found the extinguisher wrapped in a plastic bag in the pond on their property," Westchester County District Attorney Anthony Scarpino said.
The victim's DNA was found on that fire extinguisher.
Lois Colley was described as a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She loved horses and her garden.
Gomez also spoke through a translator, and said he hoped the family could one day forgive him.
He has no plans to appeal.
