A Woodside couple was arraigned on attempted murder charges Sunday for beating and stabbing a man in Sunnyside during an argument over a parking spot Friday afternoon. (File/Lloyd Mitchell)
March 20, 2023 By Bill Parry
A Woodside man and his girlfriend were arraigned in Queens Criminal Court on March 19 in connection with the vicious beating of a man in Sunnyside last week that left the victim critically injured and fighting for his life.
Arturo Cuevas, 30, of 48th Street, and his live-in girlfriend Daisy Barrera, 27, were charged with attempted murder in the second degree and multiple assault charges in the March 17 stabbing and beating of 28-year-old Wilson Chabla Lliguicota after an argument over a parking spot exploded into violence and a woman was struck by one of the attackers with a baseball bat as she tried to intervene in the attack.
Police from the 108th Precinct in Long Island City responded to a 911 call of an assault on 47th Avenue between 48th and 49th Streets in Sunnyside just before 4 p.m. on March 17. Upon their arrival, officers found the victim lying in the roadway in a pool of blood, according to the charges.
Cuevas and Barrera were seen on surveillance video engaged in an argument with the victim when Cuevas suddenly pulled out a sharp object and stabbed him multiple times in his body, the charges state. As Lliguicota was lying prone on the street, Barrera began to bludgeon him in his head multiple times with a baseball bat, according to the criminal complaint. Cuevas continued to stomp the defenseless victim.
An eyewitness tried to come to the victim’s rescue but Barrera struck her in the arm with the baseball bat causing “considerable pain.”
EMS rushed Lliguicota to Elmhurst Hospital Center where he was listed in critical but stable condition on Monday with lacerations to his body and face which required medical treatment and he also suffered severe brain trauma, which required emergency neurosurgery, according to the criminal complaint. Lliguicota remains on a ventilator in critical condition as of Monday evening. The good Samaritan refused medical attention at the scene.
While undergoing questioning by detectives at the 108th Precinct in Long Island City, Cuevas allegedly stated, “It was me, I told you it was me already. I already told you that I’m the one who did it.”
Cuevas also allegedly revealed during the interrogation by the detectives that he knew the victim and told them where they could find the weapons used during the brutal attack.
“I punched, kicked, stabbed, slashed with a knife and hit with a baseball bat, Wilson, numerous times,” he allegedly stated to detectives. “I took the bat and knife and brought them to my apartment and they are in my room.”
Cuevas and Barrera were ordered held without bond.
“This shocking display of brutality will be met with justice,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “We have charged attempted murder and given the viciousness of the attack, asked the court to keep the defendants in custody prior to trial. The request for remand was granted. Our thoughts are with the victims.”
