Cops: Riverhead woman fatally stabbed girlfriend, held without bail following arraignment

A Riverhead woman fatally stabbed her girlfriend at their East Main Street home Thursday night, according to Suffolk County police.

A 21-year-old woman has been arrested and charged with first-degree manslaughter. Police said Karen Abigail Delacruz-Reyes killed her 20-year-old girlfriend, Marta Esmerelda Ramirez-Carbajal, during a domestic struggle.

Police responded to 1142A E. Main St. just before midnight for a call of a disturbance and the arriving officers found no one was home. There was evidence of a struggle, police said.

Officers then found the victim at Peconic Bay Medical Center in Riverhead a short time later. Ms. Ramirez-Carbajal was pronounced dead at the hospital. Ms. Delacruz-Reyes was also at the hospital and was arrested.

She was arraigned during a virtual proceeding before Judge Sean Walter in Riverhead Justice Court Thursday afternoon. She pleaded not guilty and was remanded without bail.

According to a criminal complaint, the victim was stabbed once in the chest and once in the hip, which proved to be fatal.

The charges were based in part on a video statement in which Ms. Delacruz-Reyes stated she had stabbed her girlfriend twice during a domestic dispute, according to the complaint.

Both Ms. Delacruz-Reyes and her court-appointed attorney, Jonathan Manley, appeared in court remotely while the assistant district attorney on the case, Laura Newcomb, appeared in person.

There was no police activity outside the home Thursday morning where the crime allegedly took place.