Nov. 13, 2013 By Christian Murray
A 54-year old Long Island City man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to killing his stepdaughter and critically wounding his estranged wife inside the Astoria residence they once lived, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.
Guerino Annarumma, who was in the midst of a heated divorce with his estranged wife, Olga, waited outside her 38th Street home with an automatic handgun and approached her when she stepped out to walk her dog.
Annarumma confronted Olga and threw her to the ground and kicked her in the face, before dragging her to the front door and ringing the bell, according to the District Attorney’s office.
When Annarumma’s step daughter, Valeria Kuzmina Lowery, 22, opened the door, he gunned down both women—killing Lowery and critically injuring Olga. Olga was shot in the head and was left blind and cognitively impaired.
The shooting occurred on December 5, 2011, the same day their divorce trial was to begin.
Annarumma had been married to Olga, a Russian immigrant, for about five years before their marriage went wayward in 2009. He blamed the problems on her daughter, also from Russia.
At the time of the incident, Annarumma would refer to his wife as “green card” — an apparent reference to his belief that she married him for to obtain U.S. citizenship.
Annarumma is likely to be sentenced to a 30 year prison term– after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter, second-degree attempted murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
“The defendant has admitted to talking the life of a young woman with the promise of a bright future and criticially wounding a woman he once professed to love,” said Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown. “His actions warrant a lengthy prison sentence.”