Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced that an 18-year-old was sentenced to 19 years of incarceration for the January 2022 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Julian Oliveros in New Rochelle.
Rocah said: “Today’s sentence is a sobering reminder that gun violence knows no boundaries, and it has irrevocable consequences for victims, their families and communities. We must stop guns from getting in the hands of young people.” The defendant, Tommy Rivera of New Rochelle, was prosecuted as an adolescent offender, and pleaded guilty on March 17 to Manslaughter in the First Degree, a felony. He will also be subject to five years of post-release supervision upon his release.
On Jan. 25, 2022, at approximately 3:38 p.m., the defendant, who was 16 years old at the time, used an un-serialized 9mm semi-automatic pistol—a ghost gun—to shoot the victim four times, striking him in the lower back, knee, neck and shoulder, as he walked on Fourth Street in New Rochelle. The incident was captured on surveillance video. The victim was transported to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he died that day.
The New Rochelle Police Department arrested the defendant shortly after the incident near Glen Place and Beechwood Avenue in New Rochelle. Police recovered the murder weapon from the defendant’s waistband, and subsequently recovered tools used to build ghost guns in his home. Ghost guns are untraceable, fully-functioning illegal firearms that can be easily assembled at home with parts purchased online and are designed to evade certain gun laws.
In a statement in Spanish read in court, the victim’s mother said: (translated) “On the evening of January 25, 2022, the life of my home changed forever…a part of our soul dies with my son…what sustains us is the solace that comes from recalling our time together.”
