A Port Chester man who stabbed his stepsons’ father during an argument has been acquitted of attempted murder and assault charges after jurors believed his claim that he was acting in self-defense.
Cristian Bedoya-Ramirez, 27, broke into tears soon after the verdict was read in Westchester County Court on Thursday, Feb. 5. Jurors found Bedoya not guilty of attempted murder, first-degree attempted assault and second-degree assault, all felonies, and misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault and endangering the welfare of a child.
He would have faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of 25 years in state prison if convicted of attempted murder and also faced mandatory prison time on the attempted assault charge.
On the afternoon of Dec. 25, 2024, the father and his wife went to the home on South Regent Street. They said they were picking up the man’s children when Bedoya attacked him with a knife.
But Bedoya and his wife testified that in a phone conversation that afternoon the father said he was not going to get the kids. When the wife told him he shouldn’t make promises to the kids and then disappoint them, the father grew angry and When Bedoya got on the phone, he testified, the father threatened that he was going to come over and harm him and showed up a short time later.
“I felt distressed because I became afraid, he was going to do something to me or my wife,” Bedoya testified last week through a Spanish interpreter.
Bedoya claimed his wife had told him her ex-husband was known to carry knives so he was fearful and that he had a knife in his pocket when the father and his new wife showed up. He said the two started tussling and even though he had a knife Bedoya said the father kept fighting. He said he moved his hands around to try to get the father off him.
The father suffered multiple stab wounds but Bedoya claimed he didn’t think he had cut him because he didn’t immediately see blood.
The video of Bedoya’s interview at police headquarters was played for jurors. In his cross examination of Bedoya, Assistant District Attorney Luis Felix questioned him about why none of the things he was claiming about being fearful, that he believed the father to carry knives and that he had threatened to kill him, were shared with the detective. Bedoya said he wasn’t asked about those things so didn’t say them.
The verdict came on the third day of jury deliberations following a 10-day trial before Westchester Judge Melissa Loehr.
After the verdict, Bedoya and his wife Marta thanked defense lawyers Jessica Hugel and George Kobakhidze of the Westchester Legal Aid Society.
“They did a really, really good job,” he said in Spanish translated by his wife. “We’re just so happy.”
Marta Bedoya said she lost custody of her sons after her husband’s arrest and said the acquittal should go a long way to helping her get them back.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Jury acquits Port Chester man who said stabbing was self-defense
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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