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Bronx teen sentenced to 13 years in prison and deportation for killing of 17-year-old
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 11, 2023
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By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 11, 2023
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A young man who pleaded guilty to killing a teenager during a 2021 mass shooting at a Bronx park will likely be deported after he serves a 13-year prison sentence, a Bronx judge ruled Monday.
The judge sentenced Luis Cruz, who was 18 at the time, as an adult on a charge of first-degree manslaughter for the death of 17-year-old Armanis Valdez.
Cruz and Valdez were among many teens caught up in a recent wave of young victims and perpetrators of gun violence in the city. Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement that the borough broke a 25-year record for shootings — many involving teens — in 2021.
Last year, 153 juveniles were shot — more than double the 75 who were shot five years earlier, NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey testified at a state hearing in January. The number of youth suspected of shooting someone also more than doubled during that time, from 48 to 123.
“We remain resolute in making our streets safer and steering our youth from gang culture,” Clark said.
On May 15, 2021, a crowd gathered in a park behind the McDonald’s on Webster Avenue in Claremont, where a rapper was filming a music video, according to court papers. Around 9 p.m., shots rang out, killing Valdez and wounding four others.
Assistant District Attorney Morgan Dolan said the shooting was a gang-related shootout and that Cruz and Valdez belonged to different sects of the Trinitarios gang. Cruz has denied that he’s a gang member.
“As a result of his choice to become involved in gang violence, an individual did die,” Dolan said.
Cruz’s attorney, Lawrence Sheehan, told the judge his client came to this country with his mother and had a “rough life.” Sheehan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
While Justice Ralph Fabrizio described the injuries to Valdez’s lungs and heart that killed him, Cruz’s mother, Belkis Cruz, clasped her hands together and rested her chin on her thumbs.
Whether or not Cruz is a gang member, Fabrizio said, he engaged in “gang-like conduct” the day of the shooting.
Cruz briefly glanced back at the seating gallery, where his mother and fiancee sat side-by-side, watching intently. Dressed in an orange Department of Correction uniform, his cuffed hands covered in matching orange mitts, he occasionally tilted his head back and forth.
Fabrizio asked Cruz if he wanted to take back his guilty plea, knowing that he could be deported, because he is not a citizen. But as a Spanish speaking-interpreter leaned over Cruz’s shoulder and translated the judge’s words, Cruz declined the offer.
New York law allows judges to divert young people’s cases from adult court if they were younger than 19 at the time of the crime. When that happens, the defendant faces much less serious punishment and records related to the case are sealed from the public. Such a disposition also would have protected Cruz from deportation.
But the judge said he would punish Cruz as an adult, because hundreds of people were in the crowd at the time of the shooting and could have been hurt or killed.
“This is like a nightmare situation,” he said.
When Fabrizio asked Cruz if he wanted to say anything, Cruz shook his head and uttered a quiet “no.” The judge announced his sentence of 13 years in prison and five years of probation, along with fees taken from his commissary account.
As officers escorted Cruz out of the courtroom, he shook his head. His mother wiped tears from her eyes with her shirt sleeve and sighed.
Valdez’s family did not attend the sentencing and the district attorney’s office did not make them available for an interview.
‘I never wanted this to happen’
Police who investigated the shooting recovered shell casings from two different guns, according to court records. The bullet that pierced Valdez’s chest matched the pistol Cruz had with him when officers pulled over a car that was driving away from the scene, a lab analysis found. A case is still pending against Amauris Vasquez, who is accused of firing the bullets that injured four other people, according to the Bronx district attorney’s office.
Cruz and Vasquez both denied any involvement in the shooting during early-morning police interrogations after the shootings.
Cruz asked for his sentencing to be delayed so he could marry his fiancée, according to a motion filed by his attorney, Larry Sheehan. Cruz’s fiancée told Gothamist they have not been able to schedule an appointment yet.
“As a mother, I understand the other side,” Belkis Cruz said in Spanish after the sentencing.
“I never wanted this to happen,” she said.
Tagged
public safety
bronx
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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