By:Robert Remler
Munro Blvd. grandson charged in brutal attack
A Munro Boulevard man was arrested and charged with second degree murder in connection with the Friday stabbing death of his grandmother, according to Nassau County Police.
Police say that Javier Penate, 21, stabbed Zoila Pecheco more than 30 times with a folding knife at 4:30 p.m. March 16. Police discovered the 65-year-old woman's bloodied body on her living room floor when they arrived at the two-story house. She was dead by the time officers arrived.
"I am sure she was disabled quickly," said Det. Lt. Frank Guidice of the Nassau County Homicide Squad.
Police do not know what motivated Penate's attack. Guidice said the homicide squad's investigation was stalled when relatives of the victim and suspect refused to allow police to search the house.
Murder victims' families are generally more cooperative with police, said Guidice. He understood the difficulty in this particular case where both the suspect and victim were related and lived in the same house. "It is not unheard of," he said. "It has happened to me before."
Police obtained a search warrant and searched the crime scene, police say. They found and were testing a knife they believed was used in the assault.
Police were called to the house by the suspect's sister and discovered the 21-year-old man alone in his basement apartment. Penate was facing a closet when police entered. "He just wouldn't comply with the officer's instructions," said Guidice. "He wouldn't put his hands up. He wouldn't lie down on the floor."
Police say that because the suspect was uncooperative they were forced to use an electrical shock or Taser gun in order to take him into custody. "They observed blood on his clothing, blood in his room. There was a dead body in the house."
Police said Penate, 5'9" tall, and weighing 160 pounds, was taller and heavier than his grandmother.
The family lived at the house for six years. Penate once worked as a stockbroker but was currently unemployed, said Guidice.
"The grandmother was very nice," said a neighbor near the intersection of Munro Boulevard and Locust Street. "I didn't know him, but she and her daughter were nice."
Neighbor Frank Muldoon said that eight police cars and three ambulances were at the scene. A resident for 30 years, he could not recall another murder in the quiet neighborhood. "It was very unusual."
Guidice said that Penate is originally from El Salvador.
He was arraigned at First District Court in Hempstead on March 17 and held without bail. It was his first arrest, police said.
