An Elmont man was sentenced Tuesday to 25 years to life in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend at Belmont Racetrack in June 2018.
Jose Franco-Martinez, 58, stabbed his ex-girlfriend, Maria Larin, multiple times around her body with a silver kitchen knife as she was working with horses on the track, District Attorney Anne Donnelly said.
“Enraged by the thought of his ex-girlfriend seeing another man, this defendant drove halfway across the country to murder her at Belmont Racetrack where she worked,” said Donnelly in a statement. “Franco-Martinez brutally stabbed and slashed Maria Larin more than 20 times before he was restrained by staff at the racetrack. We continue to keep the Larin family in our thoughts as this defendant is brought to justice for his horrific crime.”
Franco-Martinez paid an acquaintance on June 16, 2018, to drive him from Kansas, where he was working, to New York to kill Larin the next day, Donnelly said at the time of Franco-Martinez’s conviction.
Larin was a hot walker, which cools the horses down after racing, at the time of her murder.
Franco-Martinez previously worked as a hot walker at Belmont.
A co-worker of Larin’s who saw what happened picked up a shovel and hit Franco-Martinez in the head with it before he ran away and threw the knife into the bushes while security staff from the New York Racing Association chased and apprehended him.