An illegal migrant from Colombia who strangled his Queens landlady after he failed to make good on rent was sentenced to more than two decades behind bars Friday for the vicious slaying, authorities said.
Davi Vidal, 20, was still a teenager in December 2023 when he killed 55-year-old Zoraida Leo with his bare hands and a cord from an iron, lashing out during a dispute over unpaid rent, The Post previously reported.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant sentenced Vidal to 22 ½ years in prison, followed by five years of post-release supervision, after he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter last month, prosecutors said.
“This defendant brutally attacked Zoraida Leo after a rent dispute and then callously left her to die on the floor of her own home,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.
“No family should endure the loss of a loved one in such a cruel manner. We cannot undo this egregious harm, but with this sentence we have helped secure justice for Ms. Leo’s family.”
This victim’s sister, Maria Leo, previously ripped Vidal as an “assassin” and questioned how he was even allowed to be in the country.
“He’s a migrant who crossed the border illegally,” Leo, a naturalized citizen from the Dominican Republic, told The Post in November 2024.
“How is it that the federal government let this delinquent go, only for him to kill an innocent woman — my sister? Vidal is an assassin,” she said.
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer for Vidal after his arrest in Zoraida Leo’s Dec. 4, 2023 killing, The Post previously reported.
Prosecutors said Leo’s son found her dead in the bathroom entryway of her East Elmhurst home the next day, after she didn’t show up for work or respond to calls.
When cops arrived, Vidal — who had lived in the attic — was inside the home, crying, and had scratches on his face, prosecutors said.