After shooting the 23-year-old victim, defendant fled into the Saw Mill River where he was apprehended
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah announced today that a Yonkers man was sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison for fatally shooting his neighbor, 23-year-old Lateef Butler, outside their Yonkers apartment building in 2020.
DA Rocah said: “In keeping my promise to hold perpetrators of gun violence accountable, today’s sentence brings justice for Lateef Butler’s family and removes a dangerous individual from our streets.”
After a four-week trial, a jury on Dec. 21, 2022, found Terrence Gonzalez, 31, guilty of Murder in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, both violent felonies.
On June 26, 2020, at approximately 6:08 p.m., the defendant used a .38 caliber revolver to shoot the victim five times, striking him in the neck, chest, hip and thigh, during a dispute outside an apartment building where they both lived on Nepperhan Avenue in Yonkers. The victim was transported to St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Yonkers, where he was pronounced dead.
Following the incident, the Yonkers Police Department arrested the defendant in the Saw Mill River, by Stefanik Park in Yonkers, after he fled the shooting scene and led police on a foot chase. Following the pursuit, Yonkers police recovered the gun used to murder the victim under a bush near Center Street, and obtained surveillance video of the fatal shooting.
The District Attorney thanks the Yonkers Police Department for their collaboration during this case. The case was before Judge George Fufidio in Westchester County Court, and was prosecuted by Bureau Chief James Bavero and Senior Trial Counsel Brian Bendish, both of the Trials and Investigations Division.
