By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — A man who admitted to killing a 19-year-old aspiring boxer from Midtown in a street brawl was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Tuesday, giving the victim's tearful family closure.
Exequiel Reyes, 23, was charged with stabbing Omar Gasper to death on East 75th Street on Oct. 3 when the two men, who apparently did not know each other before that night, got into an argument after leaving the same party about 4 a.m., according to court papers.
Family members said Tuesday they still don't know what provoked the fight that led to Gasper's death, but they were glad to see his murderer go to prison.
"The one who took his life is a monster," said the victim's devastated mother, Luisa Gasper, minutes before she nearly collapsed while reading the family's statement at Reyes' sentencing.
"I hope that the man who murdered my son regrets what he did," she said through a Spanish interpreter.
Reyes, of the Bronx, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in November. In addition to a prison sentence, he received five years post-release supervision.
