Prosecutors on Friday sentenced a Long Island man to 25 years to life in prison for killing his girlfriend in her Mineola penthouse apartment in 2022 as she prepared to leave him and move to Florida.
On Thursday, Mark Small, 57, received his sentence after a jury found him guilty in September of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon in the death of Marivel Estevez, 39.
“Rather than letting her leave New York to start a new job in a new state, this defendant decided that if he couldn’t have her, no one could,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly said in a statement.
According to police, the relationship was “going very bad” at the time, and Estevez had informed friends and family that she intended to end it with Small and find a new job in Tampa.
Estevez was murdered on the night of July 28, 2022, in her top-floor apartment at Allure Mineola apartments, where she also worked as a manager.
Prosecutors say Small, a “failed restaurateur” from Elmont, shot Estevez once in the arm and once in the head before fleeing in her car with her dog, Tuffy.
When an employee did not show up for work the next day, she called the police. Officers from Nassau County, who were conducting a wellness check, found her dead on her bed.
After the murder, the dog escaped from Tuffy, and as he chased it down the Long Island Expressway, a car struck him. Tuffy unintentionally helped police track down Small.
Officers discovered Small at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset on August 2, where he was receiving treatment for his injuries from the car crash. It is unclear what happened to Tuffy.
Investigators had already identified Small through security camera footage and the use of his entry fob at Allure Mineola, which is directly across the street from the Nassau County Court House and District Attorney’s Office.
