SOUTH BRONX — The man who sodomized and killed a 15-year-old Bronx girl in 2012 before covering her body in bleach to hide his crime was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Wednesday.
Luis Vega, 38, stood accused of killing teenager Destiny Sanchez in November 2012 after they left the home of Sanchez's father.
Vega, the brother of Sanchez’s father’s girlfriend, went with Sanchez to 640 Barretto St. in Hunts Point, and she was found the next morning with her clothes askew and bleach poured on her, according to the Bronx District Attorney’s Office.
Investigators found Vega’s DNA on Sanchez and on a bottle of bleach at the apartment he had been staying in, the DA’s office said.
He was initially only charged with child endangerment while investigators awaited the results of lab tests but was indicted for sexually abusing and murdering Sanchez more than a year after she was found dead.
Vega pled guilty to charges of manslaughter and a criminal sexual act on May 4, and Justice William Mogulescu sentenced him on Wednesday to 25 years in prison and 10 years of post-release supervision.
Sanchez had hoped to become a lawyer, and a neighbor described her as a friendly and composed girl.
“This defendant committed a horrendous sex act on a child, strangled her and covered her body in bleach to destroy evidence,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in a statement. “Destiny Sanchez would have celebrated her 16th birthday a week later.”
Sanchez's cousin Edwin Soto maintained that the sentence Vega received was far too lenient.
"I think that for the heinous crime that he committed, 25 years is not enough," he said.
