Hugo Perez-Gabriel was not implicated in the death of a 15-year-old boy who died of acute intoxication in his New Rochelle home.
But he will spend at least 9 years in state prison for sexual misconduct involving the boy and for later moving the boy’s body out of his home and leaving it on a sidewalk.
Perez-Gabriel, 33, was sentenced on Thursday, April 30, by Westchester Judge Robert Prisco to 9 to 19 years in prison, the term he was promised in March when he pleaded guilty to use of a child in a sexual performance, third-degree criminal sex act and tampering with physical evidence, all felonies.
He was arrested on tampering charges after the body of Jonson Temaj was discovered on the sidewalk near Perez-Gabriel’s Washington Avenue home on Feb. 6, 2025. He and a 16-year-old had moved it there.
But the investigation revealed that Perez-Gabriel had made a video of Temaj posing naked for him days before his death and performed a sex act on the boy the previous August.
Temaj was a student at New Rochelle High School and living with an uncle while his parents remained in Guatemala.
Prisco sentenced Perez-Gabriel to 4 to 12 years in prison for making the video of Temaj; four years for the sex act; and 1 to 3 years for moving the body, with all the prison terms to run consecutively.
Assistant District Attorney Laura Forbes read an English translation of a letter in Spanish from Temaj’s uncle on behalf of the family thanking authorities for their work on the case.
“Since then we have been more vulnerable, more sensitive, to such an extent that we have been victims of emotional illnesses such as stress and anxiety,” the letter read. “In the face of a tragedy like this there are no words or material things that can alleviate our pain, only the presence of God in our lives can do so. We are learning to grow closer to Him, placing our trust in His promises.”
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: New Rochelle man who sexually abused teen, moved body sentenced
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
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