North Brunswick Man Admits To Killing New Brunswick Woman

NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — A man from North Brunswick pleaded guilty Tuesday for killing a 38-year-old woman from New Brunswick, the Middlesex County prosecutor announced Wednesday.

Christian Cortes, 25, of North Brunswick pleaded guilty Tuesday to first-degree aggravated manslaughter, admitting he shot Desiree Alvarado in New Brunswick on Friday, July 14, 2017. The woman died four days later at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital from complications due to the gunshot wound to her neck.

It was a case of mistaken identity following a robbery, according to TAP Into Edison. TAP Into Edison reported from court that Cortes said he was in New Brunswick to buy marijuana that day. He said he was robbed and he suspected another man set up the robbery. He said he fired into a parked car owned by the man he said set up the robbery, but he did not know Alvarado was inside, because the car had tinted windows.

Alvarado was a mother of four and a medical receptionist. Her mother told NJ Advance Media that she saw her daughter walking up her driveway clutching her neck after she'd been shot. She died four days later in the hospital.

In a plea agreement, Cortes will be sentenced to 16 years in a New Jersey state prison. He must serve 85 percent of his prison term before becoming eligible for parole.

Police say that on Friday, July 14, 2017, at 10:30 a.m. Cortes shot Alvarado, while she was sitting in a car, on Seventh Street between Livingston and Joyce Kilmer avenues in New Brunswick. She was
pronounced dead on July 18, 2017 at 5:20 p.m. at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick.

Cortes is scheduled to be sentenced in New Brunswick by Superior Court Judge Joseph Rea on May 22, 2019.