{"id":162352,"date":"2026-03-13T13:47:33","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162352\/"},"modified":"2026-03-13T13:47:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:47:33","slug":"widow-of-slain-officer-testifies-at-murder-trial-in-queens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/162352\/","title":{"rendered":"Widow of slain officer testifies at murder trial in Queens"},"content":{"rendered":"

Prosecutors called the wife of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller<\/a> to testify Thursday in his murder trial, as the case against Guy Rivera<\/a> continued at Queens Criminal Court.<\/p>\n

Stephanie Diller told the court she and her husband had dated since she was 18 and married in 2019. Their only child, a 15-month-old son, was with them on the last day they saw Diller, March 25, 2024.<\/p>\n

She described taking their son to a park before Diller was called into work in Far Rockaway, Queens. He called her around 5:30 p.m., minutes before he was shot, to say they would have dinner together. Hours later, he was dead.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Officer Jonathan Diller\u2019s widow testified Thursday about the last day she saw her husband before he was killed
\n
The trauma surgeon who tried to save Diller described the aggressive life-saving efforts and said Diller had been dead too long to survive
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Diller\u2019s partner testified that the accused, Guy Rivera, reached for a gun during a struggle before Diller was shot
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Rivera could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of the top charge of first-degree murder<\/p>\n

Dr. Robert Laskowski, the trauma surgeon who tried to save Diller, also testified.<\/p>\n

He said Diller arrived at the hospital with no heartbeat and was labeled a \u201cblack tag,\u201d meaning he was considered dead.<\/p>\n

Laskowski and other trauma experts were able to restart Diller\u2019s heart multiple times through aggressive procedures, but ultimately said Diller had been dead too long to save.<\/p>\n

Earlier Thursday, Diller\u2019s partner, Sgt. Sasha Rosen<\/a>, returned to the stand for a second day.<\/p>\n

Rosen testified that he saw Rivera walking on Mott Avenue in Far Rockaway with what he believed was a handgun in his pocket. Rivera got into a parked vehicle, and when Diller and Rosen approached, prosecutors say Rivera reached for the gun, prompting a struggle.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors allege Rivera intentionally aimed the firearm under Diller\u2019s bulletproof vest and fired. The defense maintains the shooting was accidental during the struggle.<\/p>\n

Diller was posthumously promoted to detective.<\/p>\n

Rivera, 36, could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if found guilty of the top charge of first-degree murder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Prosecutors called the wife of NYPD Officer Jonathan Diller to testify Thursday in his murder trial, as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[387,25,9,24,12,26,63,308,122,124,123,27,200],"class_list":["post-162352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-app-public-safety","tag-app-top-stories","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-nia-clark","tag-nyc","tag-public-safety","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}