Christopher Gonzalez convicted of rape and murder in 2005
Christopher Gonzalez (Collier County Sheriff’s Office)
A 41-year-old Florida man who sexually assaulted and strangled a 25-year-old woman before dumping her body at the side of an avenue nearly 20 years ago will face at least several decades in a New York state prison.
Westchester County Judge Robert Neary on Friday sentenced Christopher Gonzalez to 20 years in prison for the brutal 2005 murder of Angel Serbay, according to a press release from Westchester prosecutors.
Serbay’s mother read a victim’s statement before the judge announced the verdict.
“While I am grateful that her killer, Christopher Gonzalez, was eventually caught and grateful that law enforcement never gave up trying to catch him, the years of waiting have taken their toll on me and been excruciating,” she said. “I don’t forgive Christopher Gonzalez. I think he’s an evil, ruthless, soulless man.”
Authorities say Gonzalez raped, beat and strangled Serbay, a Yonkers mother, on September 3, 2005. He then wrapped her body in a sheet and threw it on the shoulder of Sprain Brook Parkway in Greensburgh, about 25 miles north of New York City. Her remains were discovered by a passerby who contacted the New York State Police.
A subsequent joint investigation by the NYSP and the New York City Police Department linked the forensic death of Serbay to another woman who had been murdered in the Bronx five years earlier.
That victim, Dora Delvalle Almontaser, was 19 when she was raped and strangled with a phone cord in 2000 while sitting on the house for her uncle in the Bronx. Police obtained liquids and a fingerprint from the victim and the crime scene. No matches were found for either at the time, but police created a “John Doe” profile based on the alleged killer’s DNA.
Authorities said DNA evidence extracted from DNA evidence from Serbay’s body matched the DNA profile of Almontaser’s killer, but the profile did not match anyone in law enforcement databases at the time. The two cases went cold.
In November 2017, a Bronx detective reopened Almontaser’s case and ran the alleged killer’s fingerprint again. This time the fingerprint matched Gonzalez, who had been arrested eight months earlier for driving without a license.
Gonzalez reportedly posted $500 bail and was back home in Naples, Florida after his traffic violation. But before long, detectives from the New York State Police and NYPD were knocking on his door.
He was arrested and charged with Almontaser’s murder while the second murder investigation continued.
In May 2019, Gonzalez was charged in Westchester County with Serbay’s murder. He was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder, and one each of first-degree rape and criminal first-degree sexual assault.
While at the Empire State, Gonzalez lived blocks away from any of the women he had raped and killed.
In December, Gonzalez pleaded guilty to both murders in exchange for prosecutors agreeing to recommend him a 20-year sentence in each case.
“Angel Serbay was murdered and left inhumane by the side of the road, and now, 18 years later, we have won justice for her family, friends and community,” Westchester DA Miriam E. Rocah said in a statement. “Today’s verdict holds this defendant responsible for his heinous crime.”
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https://lawandcrime.com/crime/an-evil-ruthless-soulless-man-florida-man-sentenced-for-brutal-rape-and-murder-of-ny-woman-after-nearly-2-decades/ Christopher Gonzalez convicted of rape and murder in 2005
