Jessice Mera, a 40-year-old woman from Queens, New York, had built a life with her husband, Kevin Canty, since they were teenagers. Their family included an adult daughter and two younger children, a boy and a girl aged nine and six. That life was shattered in an act of shocking violence on the morning of Saturday, April 19, 2014, inside their home in the Ozone Park neighborhood.
The tragedy unfolded around 11 a.m. at the family’s residence on 104th Street. A domestic dispute between Jessice and her husband, a 43-year-old retired NYPD officer, escalated with horrifying speed. Canty, who had left the police force on disability the previous year, had become convinced that his wife was having an affair. Fueled by jealousy, he used a 9mm handgun and shot Jessice multiple times in the torso.
The couple’s two young children were in the home and witnessed the brutal attack on their mother. As their father fled the scene, the terrified children ran out of the house and into a nearby bodega, screaming for help. A witness, Heidi Gamble, later recounted their desperate cries. "They came in screaming, crying, saying their dad just shot their mom and there's blood all over, please help," she told a reporter. First responders arrived to a grim scene, finding Jessice with catastrophic injuries. She was rushed to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in cardiac arrest but was pronounced dead a short time later.
In the immediate aftermath, Kevin Canty ran several blocks before being apprehended by police on Pitkin Avenue, where witnesses said he had attempted to steal a car. He was taken into custody with the murder weapon still in his possession. The New York City Police Department charged Canty with second-degree murder and criminal use of a firearm. He reportedly confessed to the killing, citing his suspicions of infidelity as the motive.
Canty was held without bail and underwent a psychiatric evaluation. In November 2015, in a decision that would spare his children the trauma of testifying against their father in court, he pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of first-degree manslaughter. Jessice's sister, Lisa Caccavale, expressed her relief at the plea, stating she was thankful the children would not have to endure a trial.
On January 6, 2016, Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder sentenced Kevin Canty to 25 years in prison. At the time of the plea, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown described the case as "a tragic story with no winners, only losers." He added, "There is a mother who senselessly lost her life, a husband who stands convicted of her death, and their children who must grow up without the love or comfort of either parent." The sentence brought a legal conclusion to a case that began with a domestic dispute and ended with a family irrevocably broken by violence.
