NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — A career criminal convicted of fatally running over FDNY EMT Yadira Arroyo with her own ambulance in the Bronx in 2017 was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison without parole.
Jose Gonzalez was high on drugs on the evening of March 16, 2017, when he stole the ambulance from Arroyo, 44, and mowed her down before crashing into cars at Watson Avenue and White Plains Road in Soundview.
Before the sentence was handed down by Judge Martin Marcus, Gonzalez, 31, apologized and said he didn't mean to kill anyone. "I was high on PCP," he said. He was convicted by a jury of first-degree murder in March.
Many wept in the courtroom during victim impact statements as well as after the sentencing. "A life for a life," Arroyo's aunt said.
"For the last six years, the family of EMT Yadira Arroyo has lived with the heartbreak of her murder at the hands of Jose Gonzalez," FDNY Commissioner Laura Kavanaugh said after he was convicted of killing the 14-year FDNY veteran.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as well as questions over Gonzalez's mental fitness, delayed the case several times.
He was initially declared unfit to stand trial, but that decision was reversed last year.
Gonzalez had a long criminal history, with over two dozen prior arrests. He was found to be high on cannabis and a hallucinogen when he killed the 44-year-old mother of five.
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