Law would toughen penalties for serious assaults
Family members of a Bronx resident killed after being sucker-punched by a teen criticized the slow progress of a law meant to create tougher penalties for similar crimes. Viewer video shows the moment
News 12 Staff
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Mar 25, 2016, 6:04 AM
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Updated 2,947 days ago
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Family members of a Bronx resident killed after being sucker-punched by a teen criticized the slow progress of a law meant to create tougher penalties for similar crimes.
Viewer video shows the moment when Ildefonso Romero Jr. was trying to break up a fight outside his home in the summer of 2014.
One of the teens punched him in the head and he died several days later.
But the attacker was charged and convicted of misdemeanor assault, even though the family says officials told them the teen would face more serious charges after Romero's death.
The attacker wound up with a sentence of just five months in prison. Romero's family says the attacker was then released from prison later that day.
The new law, nicknamed Ildefonso Romero Junior's Law, would make any aggravated assault that results in serious injury or death a felony. The penalty would increase to a maximum of four years.
The state Senate passed the law last summer and again this week, but the Assembly has not yet voted.
