The Bronx District Attorney’s office announced that the defendant in the 2017 murder case of FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Jose Gonzalez, the defendant, was found guilty of first-degree murder in Bronx Supreme Court on March 8 after a month-long trial — which included delays and multiple hearings on his mental fitness to appear before the court. Gonzalez, 31, was sentenced on Wednesday.
“Today … closes a long and difficult chapter for the victim’s family and her FDNY colleagues, who have waited for justice for six years,” Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said in the announcement. “Despite the sentencing, Yadi will forever be missed by her loved ones, and the pain will always be there. We take comfort in knowing that her memory will live on through her loved ones and the communities she served while working as an EMT for 14 years.”
Today Jose Gonzalez was sentenced to life in prison without parole for the horrific and senseless death of Yadira Arroyo, a mother of five. It closes a long and difficult chapter for the victim’s family and her FDNY colleagues… pic.twitter.com/FzvkX0UyuJ
— Bronx DA Darcel D. Clark (@BronxDAClark) April 26, 2023
According to the DA’s investigation, on the evening of March 16, 2017, Gonzalez grabbed onto the back of Arroyo’s ambulance while she was on duty — riding it and then hopping off to steal a backpack from a passerby. The person who was robbed flagged down Arroyo, who got out of the vehicle to speak to Gonzalez. The defendant then jumped into the driver’s seat of the ambulance and both Arroyo and her partner told him to exit the vehicle. Gonzalez then put the ambulance in reverse, striking Arroyo, then drove forward while she was pinned under the vehicle.
An off duty MTA police officer nearby saw the incident and handcuffed Gonzalez, a Fordham Heights resident at the time, as he tried to run away after he had crashed the ambulance into a snowbank and…
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