Jose Funes-Zabala gets 20 years to life for killing ex-girlfriend Brenda Guadoloupe Alfaro-Alcantara

A Nassau County judge sentenced a Roosevelt man to 20 years to life behind bars on Wednesday for fatally stabbing his ex-girlfriend in a fit of jealousy in 2024 in front of their 2-year-old child.

Jose Funes-Zabala, 44, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and child endangerment charges in October, sat hunched over in his seat in the courtroom as he apologized to the family of Brenda Guadoloupe Alfaro-Alcantara, of Hempstead, who was 29.

"I never planned to do what I did. I regret what I’ve done," he said through a Spanish interpreter. "And I have to live the rest of my life with what I did because now my kid is without his father and his mother. I live with that every day."

But Funes-Zabala’s cousin, Rebecca Flores, who spoke before the sentence was handed down, said he had never been much of a father before the murder.

Flores said Child Protective Services had placed the boy in her care when he was 2½ months old after two incidents of abuse that left the child with a fractured femur and skull, police said.

Alfaro-Alcantara left Funes-Zabala and had started seeing someone else.

Flores cared for the child for 15 months, she said, before he was returned to his mother, but Alfaro-Alcantara visited him regularly while he was in Flores' care.

"She was that mom that didn't care it was 18 degrees out and had to take two buses plus a 20-minute walk to see him," Flores told the court. "She was that mom that came to every visit with a small token of love. She was that mom that thought her [son] was the most handsome man on this planet. She was that mom that put him first even if it meant having to be without him for his first year of life. She was that woman that was finally coming out of her shell and seemed genuinely happy."

A restraining order barring Funes-Zabala from seeing Alfaro-Alcantara expired on Oct. 4, 2024, and the next day he went to her home on Botsford Street just before 6 p.m. and confronted her over her new relationship, police and prosecutors said.

The argument escalated until Funes-Zabala stabbed the young mother 35 times as their toddler sat nearby.

Flores, who once again is the boy’s caregiver, said that when she arrived at the home, she saw the child covered in blood.

"I think I can remember it so clearly because it isn't my trauma," she told the judge. "It's the 2-year-old little boy sitting on his miniature couch covered in blood wondering why his mom isn’t moving or waking up. It's the little boy who won't play in his playroom but at my feet because he doesn't like staying alone. It's the little boy who has outbursts of frustration and can't seem to control his emotions."

Although Flores and Funes-Zabala are cousins, she was clear that she did not come to support him.

"I don’t think he feels any remorse," she said after the hearing.

She said her relationship with Alfaro-Alcantara was strained at first, but the two women became friends after she saw how dedicated she was to her son and her family back in her native El Salvador.

"That woman loved dressing up and wearing her red lipstick. If you saw her at an event, you knew she was wearing it," Flores said. "The woman who would get excited when the street cats would appear at her door so she could feed them. She was a kid at heart. She's the sister who helped her brothers out in every way possible. The daughter who never stopped sending her mom money and made sure she was well taken care of."

After Funes-Zabala and Flores spoke, Supreme Court Justice Howard Sturim handed down his sentence.

"Children are taught that there are no monsters," the judge said. "Your son knows different because of what you did. And it's a horrible shame. You are going to go where you deserve to go and hopefully you will be there for the rest of your life."