Woman gets 5- to 10-year term for aiding murder

A North Philadelphia woman who admitted helping her boyfriend identify and kill a 29-year-old bodega clerk he believed was a witness against him in another murder was sentenced to five to 10 years in prison Wednesday by a Philadelphia judge.

The prison term for Eliana Vazquez, 22, was below the six to 20 years recommended under state sentencing guidelines. Common Pleas Court Judge Benjamin Lerner said Vazquez's early decision to testify against her boyfriend and two others deserved "a strong amount of credit for a just resolution of this case."

Vazquez's sentencing closed the case in the Jan. 23, 2012, slaying of Reyna Aguirre-Alonso, a Mexican immigrant shot to death at the Caribe Mini Market in the 3300 block of North Mutter Street.

Vazquez's testimony led her then-boyfriend, Jorge Aldea, to plead guilty to ordering Aguirre-Alonso's slaying, because he believed she would identify him as the gunman who killed Louis Chevere, 22, on Nov. 24, 2011, a short distance from the bodega.

Aldea, 25, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in both killings and is serving two consecutive life terms. Shawn Poindexter, the 17-year-old who admitted that he shot Aguirre-Alonso on Aldea's orders, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life. Raymond Soto, 23, Aldea's cousin, who pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and admitted he got a gun for Poindexter and drove him to the bodega, was sentenced to 35 to 70 years.

Aguirre-Alonso's sister, Alma, wept as she gave a victim-impact statement to Lerner using a Spanish interpreter. She said she was the one who had to tell her mother in Mexico City about the murder and accompanied her sister's body back for burial.

"This is the fourth time I have had to come to court to speak about my pain and my family's pain," Aguirre-Alonso told Lerner.

"No matter what the sentence will be," she said, "no punishment, nothing, will give back my sister to us."

Vazquez wept as she apologized to Aguirre-Alonso and praised her late sister as a "hard worker who had a positive impact on our neighborhood. There isn't a day when I don't beg forgiveness for what I did."

Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega did not recommend a sentence - a condition of Vazquez's plea agreement - and acknowledged that her cooperation "did make the commonwealth's case that much stronger."

Defense attorney Paul M. DiMaio argued for leniency and told Lerner that Vazquez's impoverished, abusive childhood made her vulnerable to the influence of Aldea, whom he called a "monster."

In addition to testifying against her codefendants, Vazquez has completed prison courses on drug abuse, anger management, life skills, decision-making, computer literacy, and Bible study to prepare her for her eventual parole, DiMaio said.

Lerner told Vazquez her actions were "an integral part of the plan in that murder."

Vazquez admitted going to homicide detectives at Aldea's behest to provide misinformation to mislead detectives. But she also heard that detectives wanted to speak with Aguirre-Alonso, and by giving that information to Aldea, she sparked the plan to kill Aguirre-Alonso.

Lerner praised Vazquez's decision to testify: "I know how many cases where justice is not served because there was nobody like you . . . who tried to make things right."