A New York woman was sentenced today to 20 years to life for murdering her girlfriend and dumping her body in Yonkers.
Wanda Veguilla pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shooting of Pamela Graddick.
Wanda Veguilla’s latest act of manipulation got her an extra two years in prison for the 2012 fatal shooting of her girlfriend, whose body she dumped in a wooded area of Yonkers.
Veguilla had been promised 18 years to life in prison when she pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder and admitted shooting Pamela Graddick as she watched TV in their Bronx apartment.
But when Westchester County Judge George Fufidio learned Veguilla claimed in her pre-sentence interview that the shooting was accidental following a struggle, he decided she would either have to take back her guilty plea or reaffirm the intentional nature of the killing and get a longer prison term.
Veguilla, 42, chose the latter and Fufidio on Thursday sentenced her to 20 years to life in state prison after hearing four of Graddick’s relatives assail the defendant for her callousness and promise they will never stop fighting to keep her imprisoned for the rest of her life.
Veguilla shot Graddick in their Morris Avenue apartment early on Aug. 12, 2012. With the help of two other people she then wrapped the body in trash bags and took it to Yonkers, where they dumped it in a small wooded area off Rossmore Road overlooking the Sprain Brook Parkway. The body was discovered three weeks later.
Veguilla told police and Graddick’s family she had no idea where her girlfriend was and even helped put up Missing fliers.
After years as a suspect, Veguilla was arrested by Yonkers cold case detectives Vionette Martinez and John Geiss following a new interview in January 2022 in which she confessed to killing Graddick. District Attorney Mimi Rocah said new evidence developed in recent years included cell phone records showing the victim’s phone traveling from the Bronx to Yonkers and back the morning of the killing.
John Torres, who brought Veguilla the gun used in the killing and helped her dispose of the body, was charged with criminal facilitation. He pleaded guilty in January and was sentenced in April to five years of probation that included six months in the county jail.
For the first time in public Thursday, it was revealed that the person who introduced Torres to Veguilla and also helped dispose of the body was Emely Rubio. She pleaded guilty to conspiracy and facilitation charges and is awaiting sentencing.
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