A Lindenhurst man will spend 22 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to a murder charge for stabbing his wife to death in front of their teenage son in the backyard of their home.
Ryszard Murawski, 44, received his sentence on Thursday, following his guilty plea to second-degree murder in September for the Jan. 3 killing of Wioleta Murawski, 38.
The brutal attack occurred about 8:33 p.m., with Suffolk County Police receiving a frantic 911 call from the couple’s 15-year-old son. The teen reported that his father had stabbed his mother and fled in a black GMC pick-up truck.
Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond Tierney said the investigation revealed that the son had returned home to find his mother screaming for help in the backyard, and that the boy witnessed his father stabbing his mother with a large, serrated knife. Murawski admitted as much in his guilty plea, Tierney said.
During the incident, the boy jumped on his father, allowing his mother to briefly escape before she collapsed across the street, Tierney said. She was later pronounced dead at Good Samaritan Hospital in West Islip.
“Domestic violence is a scourge that tears families apart and leaves immeasurable trauma in its wake,” Tierney said. “When abusers use violence to exert power and control, it destroys lives and shatters communities. No one should ever have to experience the pain and loss that comes from such senseless acts.”
After the attack, Murawski led police on a seven-mile chase before crashing into a building. The killing was captured on the family’s home surveillance system.
In the weeks after her death, friends and family established a GoFundMe page to raise money to help pay for Wioleta Murawski’s funeral services and to transfer her remains to her native country Poland. Hundreds of donations poured in from the community, as the fundraising effort more than doubled its goal and collected over $94,000.
The money raised was also used to provide mental support for Wioleta Murawski’s children and to cover her parents’ travel expenses.
Her neighbor’s mother shared a pleasant memory of an interaction she had with Wioleta Murawski on the day she was killed.
“Wioleta was a wonderful neighbor to my daughter. My granddaughter and I saw her that morning when her puppy got out the front door and came to us while we waited for bus,” Mary J. Hansen commented on the GoFundMe page. “We joked about how she only has boy pets and I told her she needed a girl!
“I never thought 12 hours later she would be running for her life and be murdered. She was a wonderful mother, friend, neighbor and Person. Always pleasant and a very hard worker. I will miss talking to her.”