Cops: Queens woman held on $500K cash bail after arraignment on attempted murder charge

Riverhead Town police have charged a Queens woman with attempted murder for allegedly attacking her boyfriend with an “unknown type of knife or sharp object” in late July.

The victim suffered “substantial pain, bleeding and required hospitalization,” police said in a media release Wednesday.

The suspect, Claudia Patricia Garcia Vargas, 53, was arrested Tuesday in Queens with assistance from the New York City Police Department. She was transported to police headquarters and charged with one count of second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon. She faces up to 25 years in prison on the top charge.

She was arraigned in Riverhead Town Justice Court Wednesday afternoon and Judge Lori Hulse set bail at $500,000 cash or $1 million bond. Ms. Garcia Vargas appeared in court with her hands chained behind her back and wearing a Tommy Hilfiger shirt. She was represented by a Legal Aid Society attorney and entered a not guilty plea.

Police said the incident occurred shortly after midnight on July 24. Police responded to a home on Fresh Pond Avenue in Calverton to a report that a man, who was bleeding, had approached the home seeking assistance for a knife wound to his neck. The 48-year-old man transported by the Wading River Fire Department to Peconic Bay Medical Center for treatment of his injuries.

While interviewing the victim, police determined that he had been a passenger in a vehicle driven by Ms. Garcia Vargas. She allegedly stopped her vehicle on the side of the road on Fresh Pond Avenue and attacked her boyfriend, identified as Daniel Saavedra.

Mr. Saavedra said Ms. Garcia Vargas, his former girlfriend of seven years, often borrowed money from him and was jealous, according to a statement he gave police the day after the attack. He had told her he wanted to break up with her because his mother was ill and he needed money for her.

On the night of the attack, Ms. Garcia-Vargas picked up Mr. Saavedra in Queens, where he worked, and told him they were going to eat steak and drink beer. Instead, she drove east for more than an hour, eventually pulling over on the side of Fresh Pond Avenue in Calverton when Mr. Saavedra said he “had to pee,” according to a criminal complaint.

That’s when the attack happened and, according to the criminal complaint, she allegedly told him: “This is where you die!”

He was able to escape and knock on the door of a resident, who called police.

Riverhead detectives responded to the scene along with a K-9 unit to assist in the investigation.

The investigation remains ongoing, police said. Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives at 631-727-4500, ext. 289.

It’s the second stabbing incident in which a suspect faces an attempted murder charge. The Suffolk County district attorney announced last week an indictment against a Calverton man who nearly killed his friend in a stabbing in late July. Ronald Oscal Cruz, 29, is facing second-degree attempted murder for that attack.