SOUTH BRONX — Two men who pleaded guilty to a Bronx bodega robbery that ended in the death of a bodega worker who was shot after colliding with a police officer while escaping were sentenced to 17 and 13 years in prison on Thursday.
Orlando Ramos and Ernesto Delgado pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery as their trial was set to begin on April 20.
Thursday a judge sentenced Ramos to 17 years in prison, and Delgado was sentenced to 13 years.
The two men were accused of robbing Aneurys Deli and Grocery at 1299 Franklin Ave. in Morrisania in September 2012. They pistol whipped a bodega worker and stole money. When police arrived on the scene, Reynaldo Cuevas and other workers ran out of the store, but Cuevas bumped into a police officer and the officer's gun discharged, killing Cuevas.
Reynaldo's sister Nicole Cuevas, an active-duty marine, said at the sentencing that the family was not done seeking justice, and she hoped that Ramos and Delgado felt remorse for their actions.
"My mother is no longer the same," she said. "She won't stop crying. She won't stop waiting for her son to come home."
Ana Cuevas, Reynaldo's mother, said through an interpreter that her son planned to follow his sister's footsteps into the military.
"He will always be in my heart," she said, "but I hope to see him again in heaven."
Ramos and Delgado both apologized for their actions as the sentencing.
Delgado said he knew Reynaldo and described him as a very helpful person.
"I did not know he was going to be in the store that night," Delgado said through an interpreter. "I am saddened he lost his life."
"I hope that the family of this person, they can forgive me completely," he said.
Christopher Dorsey, another defendant in the case, pleaded guilty to robbery in 2015 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Cuevas' family has filed a $25 million wrongful death lawsuit against the city, the NYPD and Ramysh Bangali, the officer who Cuevas collided with and whose gun discharged.
The Bronx District Attorney's Office announced in March 2013 that that Bangali would not face a grand jury, as officials found no evidence that he committed a crime when his gun went off.
A police spokeswoman said Thursday that, at the time of the incident, the shooting was believed to be accidental. She referred all other questions to the city's Law Department, which declined to provide a comment for this story.
Nicole said she would like to see the officer lose his badge.
"We still have questions for the city as to what really went down with the police officer that night," she said. "We are really excited that we finally got some closure."
