By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — The sobbing husband of a slain Upper East Side jewelry store manager handed his wife's killer a Bible at his sentencing Monday and begged the offender to read it daily in prison.
David Andrango, 29, was sentenced to 25 years to life for the November 2007 murder of Sandra Rodriguez, 52, who caught Andrango stealing from Michael Dawkins Jewelry Store at 33 E. 65th Street, where her slashed body was found.
Her tearful widower, Noel Pumarejo, 53, said since he lost his wife of almost 19 years, he found religion and wishes the same for his wife's killer.
"You still have a chance to save yourself," Pumarejo said in court.
"You know what you have done," he added. "I have forgiven you and my daughter has forgiven you."
Just weeks before the murder, Pumarejo asked his wife to leave her job and move back to Puerto Rico with him, he recalled.
She told him she was not ready to leave the store and leave New York and was killed weeks later after she asked for more than $400 in restitution from Andrango.
As the shop's manager, Rodriguez gave Andrango a pass when she found out he was stealing from his ex-employer.
She fired him but did not report him to the police on the condition that he repay what he stole, a judge recalled before giving him the maximum sentence.
"I did something very stupid which I will never do again," Andrango said through a translator in court on Monday when offered the chance to speak.
He promised to keep his victim's family in his "prayers forever," and asked for forgiveness.
When she slapped him with the maximum penalty, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Bonnie Wittner said Andrango's apologies and his claim that he led a tough life were not "truly mitigating."
"His being sorry in a case like this does very little," Wittner said.
