Posted on: February 26, 2026 10:00 PM

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Queens man sentenced to 22 and half years in prison for strangling landlady

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Davi Vidal was sentenced to 22 ½ years in prison for killing his 55-year-old landlady, Zoraida Leo, by strangulation in December 2023. Vidal, also known as Deiby Vidal, leased an attic unit in the victim’s multi-unit residence in East Elmhurst for two years before the deadly confrontation over unpaid rent.

District Attorney Katz 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. 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.”

Vidal, 21, of East Elmhurst, pleaded guilty last month to manslaughter in the first degree in satisfaction of the indictment against him. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant sentenced him today to 22 ½ years in prison to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.

DA Katz said that, according to the indictment and investigation, on December 4, 2023, Zoraida Leo told a witness that she wanted to discuss outstanding rent with Vidal, who had lived in the attic apartment in her East Elmhurst home for approximately two years. Around 7:30 p.m. that evening, she called Vidal downstairs to her residence.

Vidal and the victim argued over the rent and the dispute became physical. Vidal strangled the victim to death with his hands and the cord from an iron.

The following day, after Leo did not show up for work or respond to calls from family members, her son went to her residence and discovered the victim lying deceased in her bathroom entryway.

Police who responded to the scene observed Vidal crying with visible scratch marks on his face. An autopsy by the Office of Chief Medical Examiner later determined that Leo died by strangulation.

From DA