Credit: Bucks County Detectives
A 35-year-old man who was in the United States illegally was sentenced to state prison earlier this week in connection with the violent murder of a man he knew.
Juan Antonio Villeda, 35, of Trenton, was sentenced by Bucks County Judge Rea B. Boylan to 19 to 40 years in state lockup, according to the district attorney’s office. The sentencing followed a November no contest plea to charges of third-degree homicide and possession of an instrument of crime.
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Authorities have said that Villeda beat and stabbed 38-year-old Jeronimo Villatoro to death on October 19, 2014 at the end of West Post Avenue on the Falls Township and Morrisville border. The murder came after a night of drinking at a speakeasy in Trenton.
Villeda, Villatoro and two other men drove from Trenton to West Post Avenue on the Falls and Morrisville border in a van. Villeda and Villatoro got into an argument at the end of West Post Avenue. Around that time, Villeda then reportedly struck Villatoro with a metal bar and started beating him around 8:30 a.m. on October 19, officials said.
“I am very sorry for what I did, and only God can forgive me,” Villeda told Bucks County Judge Rea B. Boylan through an interpreter.
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Assistant District Attorney Robert James called the injuries sustained by Villatoro “torturous.”
Credit: Tom Sofield/LevittownNow.com
Villeda and Villatoro, who both worked as landscapers, did not get along in the past, the district attorney’s office said. In the past, Villeda reportedly had made a threat against the 38 year old.
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Sarceno and his brother, who was not charged in connection with Villeda’s death, were taken into custody by Morrisville police moments after the violent assault. Villeda fled the scene and was picked up less than a month later in New York by the U.S. Marshal Service.
All four men involved were not in the country legally. Villeda had no previous criminal record and entered the United States 11 years ago.
