FLORIDA MAN SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR 2005 MURDER
On March 17, Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced that a Florida man was sentenced to 20 years to life in state prison for the 2005 murder of Yonkers resident Angel Serbay.
DA Rocah said: “Angel Serbay was murdered and inhumanely left on the side of the road, and now 18 years later we have gotten justice for her family, friends and community. Today’s sentence holds this defendant accountable for his heinous crime. Our Cold Case Bureau remains committed to solving the hundreds of open homicides in Westchester County.”
On September 3, 2005, Christopher Gonzalez, 41, strangled the 25-year-old victim to death and disposed of the victim’s body in a sheet on the shoulder of the Sprain Brook Parkway in Greenburgh, where she was discovered by a passerby who contacted the New York State Police.
An investigation conducted jointly by the New York State Police and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) forensically linked the victim’s death to a 2000 Bronx cold case, and the defendant’s DNA ultimately connected him to both murders. The defendant was located in Florida by the NYPD and New York State Police and extradited to the Bronx on December 8, 2017. The defendant, who was in the custody of the NYC Department of Corrections, was arrested on his charges in Westchester County on May 16, 2019.
On January 18, 2023, the defendant pleaded guilty to Murder in the Second Degree.
In a statement read in court, the victim’s mother said: “While I am grateful that her murderer, Christopher Gonzalez, was eventually caught and am thankful that law enforcement never gave up on catching him, the years of waiting have taken a toll on me and have been excruciating…I do not forgive Christopher Gonzalez. I believe him to be an evil, ruthless, soulless man.”
The District Attorney thanked the New York State Police, the NYPD, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office and the Bronx District Attorney’s Office for their assistance in this case. The case was before Judge Robert Neary in Westchester County Court, and was prosecuted by Major Crimes Bureau Chief Nadine Nagler and Bureau Chief James Bavero, both of the Trials and Investigations Division.
