MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — An ex-con who locked his girlfriend inside their SoHo apartment before stabbing her to death was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Monday, as the family of the slain woman wept throughout the emotional court proceeding.
Juan Rios was convicted in July of repeatedly stabbing 33-year-old Denise DePerrie to death inside their 31 Crosby St. apartment on Aug. 31, 2007. DePerrie was found with 13 stab wounds across her body and broken bones from the forceful blows, prosecutors said.
"I just hope and pray to God that he never gets out," DePerrie's mother, Ann DePerrie, 67, said in court Monday. "He's an animal."
DePerrie's mother, who was present at the sentencing along with the victim's sister and nieces, said she wished there was a guarantee that Rios would be behind bars forever.
Prosecutor Thomas Schiels, who has spent more than three decades as prosecutor, called DePerrie's murder as "one of the most horrific and violent homicides" he'd seen.
"He was controlling, he was violent, and he was not going to let a woman like Denise DePerrie have an upper hand against him," Schiels said.
Rios, 35, is an "angry, violent, controlling, individual" with a long rap sheet that includes various drug sale and robbery arrests, Schiels added.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Daniel FitzGerald sentenced Rios to the maximum jail time allowable under the law, adding that Rios never gave an explanation for the murder, "just a lot of self-serving rationales."
"It was indeed a vicious, angry and violent attack," FitzGerald said.
Rios' attorney, Franklin Rothman, argued the convicted killer should have been charged with manslaughter and asked for leniency.
Rios was acting in a fit of rage because DePerrie was trying to leave him, and she told him she was pregnant and that it might not be his child, Rothman said.
Rios apologized to DePerrie's family and said he did many dishonorable things in his life to support his drug habit.
"I can't imagine the pain I caused," he said. "I just want to her family to know I'm truly very sorry for what I did."
