Cops: Wife found hiding with knife in husband's mistress' closet had 'sinister motives'

Shawn Cohen

Lohud.com

1:37 PM, Apr. 19, 2011 

PEEKSKILL - A woman found hiding in a closet of her husband's mistress brought a 12-inch carving knife, surgical gloves, duct tape, bleach and garbage bags - and was waiting for the couple to return home, police said.

It is clear she had "sinister motives," said Peekskill police Lt. Eric Johansen, who could only speculate what she planned to do. "Given the items recovered, it lends itself, at the very least, to some semblance of violence."

Lizbeth Hernandez, who is being held without bail at the Westchester County jail in Valhalla, was allegedly seen by a neighbor breaking into the paramour's Peekskill condominium Saturday morning, shortly after Hernandez's husband and his girlfriend left her place.

Police said Hernandez, 47, of Middletown, had secretly followed her husband when he left his job in lower Westchester Friday evening. The husband, who left his wife a few months ago, spent the night at his girlfriend's Woods III condo. Hernandez spent the night outside in her car, waiting. At some point, she allegedly used a key to scrape the cars of her husband and girlfriend, leaving gouge marks along the sides and tops, causing several thousand dollars in damage.

After the couple left, Hernandez walked up to the ground-floor apartment and tried to open a window. A neighbor noticed her and called 911, then described Hernandez's ongoing efforts to enter the unit. Hernandez went back and forth to her car several times, retrieving a hammer and a metal spatula. She pried open a screen, smashed the window, then crawled inside over shards of glass, police said.

Police officers entered with flashlights. They found her - at 5 feet tall and 120 pounds - deep in a closet, hiding under a pile of clothes, Johansen said.

"She had concealed herself quite well," he said. "It appears she was going to lie in wait for them to return."

Hernandez said nothing of substance when officers found her, and she was taken into custody without a struggle, police said.

She was carrying the knife, gloves and tape. Inside her car, police found some garbage bags and a jug of bleach.

"On its own, that wouldn't raise too much concern, but combined with everything else, it certainly raised the level of suspicion as to what her true motive was," Johansen said. "She didn't say what her motive was. However, given the fact all these items were recovered and the fact she broken into the home, you have to think there was a much more sinister plan."

Hernandez, who lives on Oak Hill Road, has had several prior domestic disputes with her husband in which she was the aggressor, Johansen said. The couple, who have no children, have been married at least five years, he said.

She is charged with second-degree burglary and third-degree criminal mischief, felonies. She was arraigned yesterday and is due back in City Court on Monday.

Lizbeth Hernandez