Riverside Man Gets 20 Years for Killing Girlfriend in Front of Daughter, 9

A Riverside man was sentenced Tuesday to 20 years to life in prison after recently admitting to killing his 45-year-old girlfriend in front of her 9-year-old daughter two years ago.

Suffolk County Court Judge Anthony Senft sentenced Bayron Fajardo-Gonzalez, who pleaded guilty on March 28 to second-degree murder after a grand jury indicted him for fatally stabbing Tania Fox. He has been held without bail since his arrest.

“This pain we are still carrying,” Elizabeth Fox, the victim’s sister, told Dan’s Papers. “It has torn the family apart.”

Prosecutors have said the 34-year-old man, who is not the child’s father, attacked the victim after she had arrived at the couple’s Ludlam Avenue residence with her daughter following an argument shortly after 11 p.m. on August 20, 2020.

The victim and her daughter locked  themselves in the child’s bedroom to avoid Fajardo-Gonzalez, who went outside and broke a window to the child’s bedroom, chasing the mother and child upstairs to a small attic, authorities said.

Fajardo-Gonzalez then found the victim and stabbed Fox multiple times in the chest while her daughter was standing next to her, prosecutors said. 

“Imagine a woman holding on to a man who’s killing her so her child can get away,” the victim’s sister said.

The child escaped the attic and called 911, as did a tenant in the residence, as the victim could be heard screaming in the background, authorities said. Southampton Town Police said responding officers found Fajardo-Gonzalez walking down the stairs from the attic covered in the victim’s blood. He admitted he stabbed Fox, prosecutors said. The victim was taken to Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead, where she was pronounced dead.

“This defendant brutally terrorized and murdered the innocent victim in front of her terrified daughter,” Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said. “Today’s outcome cannot change that. However, it does ensure that the defendant will serve a significant sentence and will be called to account for his cowardly actions.” 

His attorney could not be reached for comment.