By The Star Staff
Three years after the crime was committed, Geofley Jomar Pérez was sentenced Wednesday to 31 years in federal prison for the murder of 15-year-old Jesús Francisco Pérez and the kidnapping of three people.
The crime took place in October 2021 at the El Hipopótamo restaurant in Río Piedras.
Judge Pedro Delgado handed down the sentence during a hearing at the federal court in Hato Rey. Attorney Anita Hill Adames represented the accused, while the Public Prosecutor’s Office was represented by prosecutor Linet Suárez.
The judge listened to the statements of family members so that they could be considered ahead of sentencing.
“You really are a great danger,” said Jenny Francisco, the teenage victim’s sister, addressing the convict, one of five co-defendants in the case.
“You destroyed our family,” she added. “We will never be the same again. There is one missing at the table in my house.”
Madeline Pérez, the victim’s mother, stared at the convict and said: “I came to tell you that you completely destroyed my life. You took away the person I loved most in my life! Why didn’t you take him to a hospital? You didn’t think that you took the life of a child, a child!”
“We are completely destroyed,” she said. “This day [in 2023], November 28, he turned 18 and I will not be able to celebrate his birthday.”
Pérez then sat down to catch her breath before leaving the stand.
The judge also received a written statement from one of the victims who survived the kidnapping.
“Since the day we were victims of these criminals, of these people who have no respect for human life, I am another person,” the statement said. “Part of me died.”
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