A 64-year-old breast cancer survivor was found murdered with an electrical cord wrapped around her neck on her own front steps in Queens Thursday — and the suspect, a landscaper more than 20 years her junior, was caught hours later with blood-drenched hands, cops and sources said.
Juliet Kashidas-Singh, 64, who a neighbor described as a “sickly,” was discovered on the bloody stoop outside her home on 103rd Avenue near 105th Street in Ozone Park. She and her accused killer — Francisco Sevilla, 40 — had worked in construction together and were fighting over $300 that the victim apparently owed him, sources said.
An electrical cord had been wrapped around her neck, according to law enforcement sources.
Sevilla was arrested hours later, at around 1 a.m. Friday — when he was found walking around with blood on his hands, sources said.
He was charged with first-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon, cops said.
But Sevilla told investigators he was “under the influence” and doesn’t remember anything, the sources said.
Sevilla is a Mexican national who has been in the US for two years, sources said. It’s not known if he entered the country legally.
The front of the victim’s home — an otherwise tranquil space with a tidy garden — was marred with blood stains on the steps, a half-eaten apple, a man’s wallet and a towel strewn on the ground Friday morning.
A 73-year-old neighbor named Dave, who has lived down the block from the victim for more than 30 years, said Singh owned a landscaping business with her previous husband.
After the pair separated or divorced, another man started coming around more often.
“I don’t think she knew how to drive. I think she hired this person to work with her and to drive her around,” Dave said. “I don’t know if they became friendly after that. … The guy has been [around] for two or three years now.”
Next-door neighbor Navid Persaud, 44, who also works in construction, said he came home from work to find an ambulance and police cars outside.
“I didn’t know what was going on,” said Persaud, who moved in three years ago. “When I came up my steps, I looked over, and I saw her lying in front of her door. I said, ‘Oh, s–t, she’s dead. Her body was not moving. Her feet were facing the door, and her head was on the steps. She was laying on her back. Her clothes were pulled up. I couldn’t see her face.”
The visibly upset neighbor said he was “shocked” at the deadly violence.
“She was a nice lady,” he said of Singh. “Something like this happened to my neighbor, a good person. This is crazy, man. Who is gonna do something like that to her?
“It has to be someone she knew. She didn’t open her door to strangers.”
Persaud recalled that a younger landscaping worker was often in his neighbor’s company.
“I always see her with a man. He looks Hispanic to me, and younger than her,” Persaud said. “It seems he does landscaping. I see him coming out with his tools. He drives a truck and two cars. He doesn’t really use the truck. It’s always parked outside the house.”
“She didn’t drive so it was just him taking her in and out … to doctor’s appointments,” he said. “I’ve never spoken to him.”
He described his slain neighbor as “sickly” and recalled that she had a home health aide who came to help her.
Another neighbor, a 24-year-old woman who did not want to be identified, said that Singh had suffered from breast cancer but appeared to be in remission, “but she also used to tell me that she was not feeling well.”
Singh, originally from Guyana, had a son who lived in Georgia, she said.
The neighbor added that she was “glad” the alleged killer was arrested “because what happened to her, she did not deserve it, she really did not deserve it.”
“Just bring him to justice, that’s it,” she said of the suspect.
Another Singh neighbor said she didn’t know the victim but was so rattled by the vicious slaying that it left her in tears.
“It’s our community. It’s our neighbor,” said the woman, who also declined to give her name. “We’re family here. It’s just a tragedy. It really is, you know.”
“It’s just mind-boggling that this could happen here,” she said, her voice cracking.
John Moscatiello, a 60-year-old mason who has lived near Sevilla for more than five years, described the accused killer as short, stocky and “mild-mannered” with a “goatee and a tattoo — a teardrop under his right eye.” He was neighborly, shoveling snow and planting flowers for his landlord.
“I can’t say anything bad about him but there is no excuse … it’s not right,” he said. “I heard it was heinous.”
Sevilla was escorted out of a precinct in Queens by cops just before midnight on Friday.
The alleged killer looked unkempt, with a rough beard, wearing a grey sweatsuit and black sneakers.
He was taken to Queens Criminal Court, where he will be arraigned.
