(Caribbean360) A 43-year-old woman who was born in Trinidad will spend between 25 years and life in prison in New York for killing and dismembering her Guyanese-born tenant and dumping her body parts in several locations.

Leah Cuevas, who lives in Brooklyn, was found guilty on Tuesday of the second-degree murder of 27-year-old mother of four, Chinelle Latoya Thompson-Browne, in a dispute over rent and utility payments on July 5 last year. She will be sentenced on January 14 next year.

According to prosecutors, Cuevas and Thompson-Browne argued over rent on July 4 and again the next day. Police were called during the first incident, but the second ended with Cuevas stabbing Browne several times and dismembering her body.

Cuevas may have been able to avoid the whole situation by carrying out an extensive tenant screening report (you can learn more about this at https://www.american-apartment-owners-association.org/tenant-screening/). Had she have done so, she may have found that Thompson-Browne would struggle to pay her rent. Nevertheless, her actions were completely unwarranted.

Cuevas stabbed Thompson-Browne 39 times. A medical examiner determined that she died of multiple stab wounds to the neck and torso.

Thompson-Browne’s body parts were found over a four-day period, scattered in Long Island. Her torso was in an abandoned lot; one of her arms was found on a lawn; the other arm was discovered in the yard of a house; and her head was found in the yard of another home.

The victim had a husband and four children back in Guyana.