Angellyh Yambo’s mother slams Bronx plea deal with her teen killer for being too lenient: ‘I will never forgive him’
- The mother of a 16-year-old shooting victim denounced the plea deal struck with the teen who fired the shot that killed her daughter last year
- “He has a second chance at life, but my daughter doesn’t,” Yanely Henriquez said
- Then 17-year-old Jeremiah Ryan used a ghost gun to fire the shot that killed Angellyh Yambo – he is expected to be sentenced Friday
The mother of a 16-year-old girl killed by a stray bullet in New York City last year called the plea deal her daughter’s shooter received too lenient.
In an interview with New York AfterYanely Henriquez said she wishes her daughter’s teenage killer would get a sentence of at least 25 years for the murder.
“I will never forgive him for what he did to me and my family and that will never change,” Henriquez said.
Angellyh Yambo died in April 2022 after being caught in the crossfire of a shootout in the Bronx while walking home from school.
Jeremiah Ryan, now 18 years old, is expected to be sentenced this Friday to 15 years to life in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter.
Straight-A student Angellyh Yambo, 16, was leaving University Prep Charter High School in the Bronx in April 2022 when a total of six bullets were fired, one of which fatally struck her
Jeremiah Ryan, 18, will be sentenced Friday after reaching a plea deal with the Bronx district attorney
“He has a second chance at life, but my daughter doesn’t,” Henriquez said, also admitting that “a lot would have been at stake” if the case had gone to trial.
Ryan was accused of firing six rounds from a 9mm Polymer 80 ghost gun – an untraceable firearm that can be purchased over the Internet and assembled at home.
The street fight reportedly took place between two rival gangs and took place near University Prep Charter High School in the Bronx, where Yambo had been a straight-A student.
Two other students were also injured in the brawl.
A spokesperson for the Bronx District Attorney’s Office, Patrice O’Shaughnessy, said the deal with Ryan was made only after Yambo’s family was consulted.
O’Shaughnessy added that the family agreed to the deal “because they didn’t want to go through a process.”
“This is final accountability for what he did and justice for Angellyh.”
“He has a second chance at life, but my daughter does not,” says Yambo’s mother Yanely Henriquez (photo left)
Yambo (center) was reportedly a straight-A student at her Bronx Charter School
Yambo’s family had just celebrated her 16th birthday when she was fatally struck
Henriquez is preparing a statement to be read in court during the sentencing. She said drafting the statement was “one of the hardest things I’ve had to deal with” after her daughter’s murder.
She said she will have to be “brave” for her children, including two sons.
“I’m going to have to find the courage and the strength and everything to get up there and (read) it.” “I know it will be very difficult,” she said.
In the wake of Yambo’s tragic death, Deputy Police Chief Timothy McCormack said, “We have two families that are completely devastated right now: the family of our victim and the family of our shooter.”