Teen Gets 19 Years In Slaying Of Former New Rochelle HS Classmate

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Justice was delivered in violence that shocked a community and ended a young life.

Westchester County District Attorney Miriam Rocah announced on Wednesday that 18-year-old Tommy Rivera was sentenced to 19 years of incarceration for the January 2022 fatal shooting of 16-year-old Julian Oliveros in New Rochelle.

"Today’s sentence is a sobering reminder that gun violence knows no boundaries, and it has irrevocable consequences for victims, their families and communities," Rocah said. "We must stop guns from getting in the hands of young people.”

SEE ALSO:

• Tommy Rivera Indicted in Killing Of New Rochelle HS Classmate
• 17 Year-Old Fatally Shot, 16-Year-Old Gunman Is In Custody: NRPD
• 17-Year-Old New Rochelle Student Killed In Shooting Is Identified

Rivera was prosecuted as an adolescent offender, and pleaded guilty on March 17 to felony manslaughter in the first degree. He will also be subject to five years of post-release supervision upon his release.

On Jan. 25, 2022, at approximately 3:38 p.m., Rivera, who was 16 years old at the time, used an un-serialized 9mm semi-automatic pistol, or ghost gun, to shoot Oliveros four times, striking him in the lower back, knee, neck and shoulder, as he walked on Fourth Street in New Rochelle.

The shooting was captured on surveillance video. Oliveros was rushed to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, where he died that day.

The New Rochelle Police Department arrested Rivera shortly after the shooting near Glen Place and Beechwood Avenue in New Rochelle. Police recovered the murder weapon from his waistband, and later recovered tools used to build ghost guns in his home. Ghost guns are untraceable, fully-functioning illegal firearms that can be easily assembled at home with parts purchased online and are designed to evade certain gun laws.

"On the evening of January 25, 2022, the life of my home changed forever," the victim’s mother said in a statement in Spanish read in court. "A part of our soul dies with my son...what sustains us is the solace that comes from recalling our time together."

The case was before Judge Helen Blackwood in the Youth Part and prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Catalina Blanco Buitrago of the Trials and Investigations Division.