Valley Stream laundromat machete death leads to 21½ years in prison

A man who Nassau County prosecutors said hacked another man to death with a machete in a 24-hour laundromat in Valley Stream was sentenced Friday to 21½ years in prison.

In a release, prosecutors said Roberto Velasquez, 32, pleaded guilty in January to first-degree manslaughter in a 2 a.m. March 14, 2023, attack in Laundry Palace on Merrick Road. 

Prosecutors said Velasquez got into an argument with Michael Oliver, 58, and hit him with a duffel bag. When a machete fell out of the bag, Velasquez used it to hit Oliver in the back and left leg.

Oliver was hospitalized on life support and suffered organ damage from blood loss and infection. He died 10 days later.

Three of Oliver's relatives spoke at the sentencing, cursing Velasquez as he sat impassively at the defendant’s table.

“He was our brother, he was our friend, he was an uncle,” Eileen Oliver, his older sister, told the court. She paused several times to collect herself before continuing. “If there was an argument, I know that my brother didn’t start it. For you to strike him in the back, you are a coward. Not once, but twice. And then you tried to chop his leg off? You are garbage. That’s what you are.”

A brother, Loren Oliver, told the court that Michael Oliver had been a good-hearted man, despite difficult circumstances. “If you need help with anything, this kid would have helped you,” he said. “No one bothered this kid — and he’s been in the worst places you could imagine — because he made friends wherever he went.”

Loren Oliver said that he offered Michael money, but his brother refused the gift.

“I miss my brother, I really do. He was a good, good kid, He had a lot of things going on with him, but he wouldn’t hurt nobody.”

The slain man’s nephew, Ricardo Perez, also spoke, calling his uncle a “warrior” and a “survivor.”

“He was a brave man, and you are a criminal, who could not defend himself so he decided to use a machete. May God have mercy on your soul.”

A man who answered the phone at Laundry Palace on Friday hung up without commenting.

Alan Schwartz, who represented Velasquez, said via e-mail: “A tragedy all around when we have homelessness that cause such desperation that one homeless man kills another in a misguided attempt to protect his few possessions.”

Velasquez, who was undomiciled, was originally charged with attempted murder, Nicole Turso, a spokeswoman for Nassau District Attorney Anne Donnelly, wrote in an email. When Oliver died, the charges were upgraded to murder.

"Velasquez will now serve decades in prison paying for his appalling crime," Donnelly said in the release.