Bronx DA: Four Defendants Sentenced to Prison for First-Degree Gang Assault

FOUR DEFENDANTS SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR

FIRST-DEGREE GANG ASSAULT

Defendants Beat Man Outside Bronx Restaurant, Left Him Brain Dead

Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that three men and one woman have been sentenced to prison for beating a man outside a restaurant in Kingsbridge in 2016. The attack left the victim brain dead.

District Attorney Clark said, “The defendants savagely beat a Manhattan father of two as he lay on the ground; stomping, kicking and punching him repeatedly. The victim’s family is still reeling with the tragic death. I hope today’s sentence brings a sense of closure to the family who lost their loved one in such a brutal way.”

District Attorney Clark said the defendants, Joel Hernandez, 26, Jenny Gutierrez, 25, Kendall Guillory, 33, and Jariel Pichardo, 33, all of Manhattan, were sentenced to prison today by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary. Hernandez and Pichardo were sentenced to eight years in prison and five years post-release supervision; Guillory was sentenced to seven years in prison and five years post-release supervision; and Gutierrez was sentenced to six and a half years in prison and five years post-release supervision. A jury found the defendants guilty of first-degree Gang Assault on September 27, 2019.

According to the investigation, at about 4 a.m. on October 2, 2016, outside of the Parrilla Latina restaurant on 5523 Broadway, the victim, Donnell Soto, 36, who was drinking alcohol at the establishment before the incident, had an argument with Gutierrez. Security guards stopped the dispute and Soto walked away.  However, Gutierrez intensified the situation when she told the other defendants to attack Soto. Gutierrez then hit Soto with her coat, and he pushed her in return. Soto was then punched and fell to the ground.  Video footage presented in court shows the defendants punching, stomping and kicking Soto in the head.

Soto was taken to St. Barnabas Hospital with severe head trauma and was declared brain dead on October 4, 2016. He was taken off life support on October 20, 2016.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney John Miras, Counsel in the Homicide Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Michael Duffy of Trial Bureau 40, under the supervision of Christine Scaccia, Chief of the Homicide Bureau, and under the overall supervision of James Brennan, Deputy Chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, Chief of the Trial Division.

District Attorney Clark thanked Natalie Cortez, Advocate in the Bronx DA’s Crime Victims Assistance Unit. District Attorney Clark also thanked Detective Thomas Woods of the 50^th Precinct and Detective Christine Reyes of Bronx Homicide for their assistance in the investigation.