Levittown teen pleads guilty in beating death of neighbor during attempted burglary

A Levittown teenager charged with beating his neighbor to death in a 2024 home invasion robbery pleaded guilty Tuesday morning in Nassau County Court.

Jose Olaya, now 18, admitted slipping into the second floor window of the home of Linda Levy, 64, an attorney who lived alone across the street on Straight Lane, in an attempt to burglarize the home on June 9, 2024.

Another teen was with him when they entered the home, prosecutors said. When Olaya came upon Levy asleep on a lounge chair on the first floor, he hit her repeatedly with a "heavy object," according to prosecutors.

Police were called to Levy’s home around 2:30 a.m. to find her badly beaten in the face and head. Her assailants had fled, authorities said.

A bent frying pan and a folded dinner tray, both spattered with blood, were found near the chair where Levy's body was found, along with a gun, authorities said. Levy had multiple permits for guns, according to the Nassau district attorney's office.

Levy was taken to an area hospital, where she lingered until she succumbed to her injuries on Aug. 8, 2024.

Olaya, who had twice run away from home in March 2024, was arrested along with his co-defendant Brandon DeJesus, who was 15 at the time, on Aug. 23, 2024, and charged with the crime, police said.

DeJesus was initially charged with assault, but he pleaded down to a burglary charge as a juvenile defendant.

The case stalled over the past two years after Olaya was found mentally unfit to stand trial, according to court records.

During his plea hearing, Olaya said he had been treated in Sagamore Children’s Psychiatric Center.

His attorney, Dorian Glover, said his client had a “psychosis diagnosis.”

“He has gotten better,” he said at the hearing. “He has had the opportunity to receive treatment.”

Olaya, who has no prior criminal history, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and first-degree burglary. He waived his youthful offender status, meaning he will not be able to appeal and his conviction will be public record even after he’s served his sentence.

Prosecutors sought 14 years to life in prison for his crime.

State Supreme Court Justice Joy Watson said Tuesday she would likely give him 12 years to life behind bars at his sentencing on Oct. 28.

Olaya’s mother and father briefly addressed the court, thanking the judge for overseeing the case. They declined to speak afterward.

Levy, who had taken care of her ailing parents, never married and had no children, friends said.

She was involved in a car group called CORE, Corvette Open Road Excursions, where she would meet up with her red 1990s-era Corvette.

Her vanity license plate read, “4 U I SUE.”

“She didn’t deserve what she got,” her close friend and neighbor Carole Costello said in an interview.