Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced on Jan. 25 that Wayne Chambers, 51, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison, after a jury found him guilty of Murder in the Second Degree for the fatal stabbing of his former girlfriend, Sandra McIntosh, 46, of Medford.
“This defendant stabbed his ex-girlfriend in cold blood and without remorse,” said District Attorney Tierney. “My heart continues to go out to Sandra McIntosh’s loved ones. I hope this lengthy sentence provides them with some measure of justice after she was tragically taken from them by this defendant.”
The evidence at trial established that on July 22, 2021, at approximately 7:45 p.m., Chambers picked up McIntosh, a nurse, after her shift ended at Stony Brook University Hospital. Chambers drove the victim to work earlier that day in her 2010 white Lexus RX350. Chambers and McIntosh were in a relationship for approximately six years but had broken up months prior.
At about 8 p.m., a 911 caller reported seeing Chambers in the same Lexus driving erratically and then stopping on Woodland Avenue in Holtsville. Witnesses then saw Chambers outside the Lexus in a physical altercation with McIntosh. At some point during the altercation, Chambers stabbed McIntosh at least 25 times including in her neck and back, puncturing her heart and lung.
When the witnesses heard McIntosh screaming, they came outside and saw Chambers physically assaulting McIntosh, and attempting to drag her by her hair. Once Chambers saw the witnesses, he jumped into McIntosh’s Lexus and sped away. McIntosh died within two hours of the attack.
The Suffolk County Police Department tracked Chambers to a location in the Bronx where they found McIntosh’s 2010 white Lexus RX350. Blood and stains were found on the exterior and interior of the vehicle, some of which contained mixtures of DNA belonging to both Chambers and the victim. Surveillance video footage from across the street where the car was found captured the victim’s car parking at approximately 10:39 p.m. on July 22, 2021, and a man getting out of the driver’s side of the vehicle with a phone in his hand.
Cell site data placed Chambers’ cell phone near the scene of the stabbing immediately after it occurred, and also showed Chambers’ cell phone had connected to a cell site near where McIntosh’s vehicle was discovered in the Bronx, coinciding with the surveillance video.
A female acquaintance of the defendant, whose residence was located approximately one block away from where McIntosh’s vehicle was discovered in the Bronx, testified at trial that Chambers came to her home on the evening of July 22, 2021. She saw that Chambers’ shirt had a bloody spot, and that he had a cut on one of his index fingers that was covered by a Band-Aid.
On July 30, 2021, members of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad, Newburgh City Police Department, the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force, and New York State Police located Chambers at a hotel in Newburgh and placed him under arrest.
On December 7, 2023, Chambers was convicted of Murder in the Second Degree after a jury trial heard before Supreme Court Justice, the Honorable Richard Ambro.
On January 25, 2024, Chambers was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. He was represented by Ian Fitzgerald, Esq.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Eric S. Aboulafia of the Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Michelle Chiuchiolo of the Child Abuse and Domestic Violence Bureau, with investigative assistance from Detectives Guido Cirenza and Brendan O’Hara of the Suffolk County Police Department’s Homicide Squad.
On April 12 Suffolk County District Attorney Raymond A. Tierney announced the arrest of Amanda Burke, a registered nurse, for allegedly lifting a two-day old newborn and violently slamming him face-down into his bassinet while under her care.
