A Freehold Borough man has pleaded guilty to first degree aggravated manslaughter in the 2014 strangulation death of his pregnant girlfriend, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.
Sender Neftali Villatoro-Reyes, 27, pleaded guilty on Jan. 13 to first degree aggravated manslaughter. Villatoro-Reyes entered his guilty plea before state Superior Court Judge Richard W. English, sitting in Freehold.
According to the prosecutor, on May 16, 2014 at 2:15 a.m., Villatoro-Reyes called 911 and reported that he had killed his 30-year-old girlfriend, Lucenay Fermin Gallegos, at their apartment on Hudson Street in Freehold Borough.
Police officers responded and found Gallegos dead on the couch in the apartment. An autopsy determined the cause of her death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation. Gallegos was approximately five months pregnant at the time of her death, according to the prosecutor.
Freehold Borough police and the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Major Crimes Unit conducted a joint investigation. Villatoro-Reyes was arrested and charged with murder that same day. He was indicted by a grand jury on March 23, 2015, for one count of murder.
At his plea before English, Villatoro-Reyes admitted that during an argument with Gallegos, he placed his hands around her throat, strangling her to death.
Pursuant to the plea agreement, the state is recommending a sentence of 28 years in state prison. Sentencing for Villatoro-Reyes is scheduled for April 21 and he remains incarcerated in the Monmouth County jail, Freehold Township, on $1 million bail with no 10 percent option, according to the prosecutor.
