Brayahan Agudelo was sentenced after pleading guilty to strangulation and other crimes committed against an ex-girlfriend in Queens (NYC), with the complicity of his mother, Maria Cruz.
Agudelo was sentenced to between 13.8 and 17 years for assaulting his ex-girlfriend last year and subsequently hired an undercover police officer to cause harm. His mother also pleaded guilty in connection with the same case.
The 32-year-old man asked the officer – who was investigating the accused in another case – to paralyze his ex-girlfriend in exchange for a firearm or a caraccording to the prosecution.
“This defendant terrorized his ex-girlfriend. Then, when he could no longer do so because he was in police custody, his mother took his place. The extent to which the defendant was willing to go to cause harm came to light during our investigation into his involvement in a car theft ring. Fortunately, through collaboration with our NYPD law enforcement partners, we were able to put an end to this abhorrent behavior and secure safe accommodation for the woman and her family,” he declared. District Attorney Melinda Katzin a statement.
Agudelo, resident of Jackson Heights, He pleaded guilty in December strangulation, burglary, harassment, endangering the welfare of a minor, conspiracy, burglary, criminal contempt and witness tampering. The sentence imposed by Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky includes a period of five years of post-release supervision.
His fifty-three-year-old mother pleaded guilty in January to charges of witness tampering and harassment; She has now been sentenced by Supreme Court Justice Frances Wang to three years of probation and 420 hours of community service.
According to the formal accusation and investigation, on the night of April 10, 2025, Agudelo put his arms around his ex-girlfriend’s neck at her home and exerted pressure, causing the victim to lose consciousness. Their two-year-old baby was present then. When the police arrived, Agudelo had already left. The victim was taken to the hospital for medical treatment.
The ex-girlfriend called 911 on April 14, 16, 22 and 25 to report that Agudelo was standing in front of her apartment door. The defendant fled on each of those occasions before police could respond to the call.
In the early morning of April 24, Agudelo entered his ex-girlfriend’s residence through a bedroom window. He brandished a knife and threatened her. When she tried to flee the apartment, he grabbed her hair to prevent her from leaving and snatched her cell phone. The victim managed to get away and opened the front door to scream for help. When the police arrived, Agudelo had already fled the apartment. The woman was observed to have bruising and indicated that she felt pain in her arm.
Later that day Agudelo struck up a conversation with an undercover police officer investigating car thefts as part of “Operation Hellcat.” The defendant asked the undercover agent if he could “make his wife paraplegic.”referring to his ex-girlfriend. In another conversation the next day she told the undercover agent that she wanted them to hit her on the back and leave her physically disabled. Agudelo and the undercover detective agreed on financial compensation and a date to carry out the attack.
Finally the police arrested Agudelo on April 25, 2025. But on April 28 and 29 He made phone calls from prison to his mother and ordered him to go to his ex-girlfriend’s home and his grandchildren’s school to convince her not to testify against him.
During one of those conversations, Agudelo provided his mother with a security code to access his ex-girlfriend’s apartment building and He gave him specific instructions to evade the security cameras. He also told his mother that he and his brother should confront the ex-girlfriend so that one of them could immobilize and hit the woman while the other spoke to her. This action constituted a violation of the protective order issued against Agudelo.
Cruz informed his son that he had followed his instructionsbut that the victim was not at home at the time. Video surveillance recordings obtained during the investigation showed the mother inside the building and in front of the door of the victim’s apartment on April 28 and 29.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office and police arranged secure housing for the victim and her family. In addition to these crimes, Agudelo was among 20 defendants charged in May 2025 as part of the “Operation Hellcat” investigation.centered on vehicle theft throughout New York City and its suburbs. For this he was accused of selling stolen cars and a firearm to an undercover agent. In February of this year he pleaded guilty. He is expected to be sentenced on May 12 to up to 6 years in prison.
Dating Violence in the Tri-State Area
This month Brendan Trivisonno (38), suspected of killing his Brazilian girlfriend, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home, ending a several-hour standoff in Lyndhurst, New Jersey.
In a dramatic police turnaround after five years of investigationsIn March, Shaquille Coke (31) was accused of conspiring to disfigure his ex-girlfriend Nafiah Ikram, throwing sulfuric acid in his face in Prolonged Island (NY).
Previously, Justin González, a young man wanted by authorities on suspicion of kidnapping his girlfriend at gunpoint in Jersey Metropolis (NJ), was caught after leading a frantic chase through Brooklyn with NYPD agents.
Previously, a 75-year-old man was charged with the death of his young wife, who disappeared in July 2025 and whose remains were found in two areas in Queens (NYC). Additionally, a man killed his wife and in-laws and then shot himself inside a home where there were three children in New Jersey.
Also that month, Odeylin González, a woman with a history of drug addiction, was arrested as a suspect in the death of her Latino boyfriend inside the supportive housing building in Queens (NYC) where he lived. In January, a 17-year-old girl was shot to death in her own home in New Jersey and prosecutors accused her boyfriend as a suspect. In addition, Albaro Chacón was sentenced for stabbing the mother of his children in front of them at home, and then trying to clean up the crime scene, announced the Suffolk County Prosecutor’s Office in Prolonged Island (NY).
In December, José Melo, a 53-year-old ex-convict DJ, pleaded guilty to fatally stabbing his girlfriend Naket Jadix Trinidad Maldonado, just hours after proposing to her at a nightclub in New Jersey. Also that month, Chilean Fernando Jiménez Meza was sentenced after pleading guilty to shooting three people, killing his girlfriend’s son in a residential complex in Westchester County (NY).
In October, Shawn Lichtfuss was found dead in his cell in New Jersey a day after a jury found him guilty of killing his wife Stefanie Caraway. Also that month, Asif Qureshi was prosecuted for murder in a court in Prolonged Island (NY), a week after his wife was found suffocated with chemical burns on her face at their home.
In 2024, William DiBernardino Jr. was accused of hiring a couple for nearly $40,000 to burn his ex-girlfriend using acid in New Jersey. In January 2020, a young woman was found dead in New Jersey months after being missing; In the meantime, her ex-boyfriend had confessed to the homicide before taking his own life, while he was out on bail on child pornography charges.
- Harassment and violence in teenage dating in New York
If you are a victim or suspect that someone is being abused, especially if it is a minor or elderly:
Seek help
- Call 911, 988 or to (800)-942-6906.
- Send the text “WELL” to 65173.
- National Domestic Violence Hotline 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) and www.thehotline.org
- Review information at https://nycwell.cityofnewyork.us/es/ www.988lineadevida.org https://www.bbc.com/mundo/articles/c87g2n139e9o