Friday, May 30, 2025 - A transgender woman who stabbed a postal worker to de@th in Harlem earlier this year has been sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Jaia Cruz, 24, who ruthlessly killed USPS worker Ray Hodges
after an argument in January, was handed the sentence after striking a
plea deal, infuriating relatives of Hodges at the Manhattan court hearing who
wanted more time.
“This is pure evil. This is a disgusting excuse for a human
being and you allowed a second chance,” the mother of Hodges’ children, whose
name wasn’t immediately clear, told Judge Gregory Carro.
“When people like this are allowed plea bargains, you get
broken families, you get us. I’m not happy with fifteen years,” she raged. “To
all these postal workers, be careful when you are out there working your
route.”
In April, Cruz pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter
in the Jan. 2 slaying of Hodges, a 36-year-old father of two, at Joe’s Deli
Grocery.
Cruz knifed Hodges after he confronted her about
cutting him in line at the counter inside the bodega, later saying that he
“deserved it,” according to prosecutors.
At the sentencing Thursday, an attorney for Cruz’ said Hodges
made a “slur”about “her gender identity” during the deli clash.
The lawyer also listed medications that Cruz, who has a
history of knife violence, has been taking to maintain her gender and
requested that she be placed in the female jail facility.
After the sentencing, Hodges’ furious family members began
chanting “It’s a boy!” and “F–king boy!”inside the courtroom as other
supporters wore “Justice for Ray” t-shirts.
Judge Carro called the fatal stabbing a “senseless killing
over a trivial misunderstanding.”
But he added that “proving someone’s intent to k!ll is
always difficult” — an apparent explanation for the plea deal and light
sentence.
Cruz’s April plea deal came less than three months
after prosecutors indicted her on a second-degree murd£r charge for the
broad-daylight k!lling, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years to
life.
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