CRIME
Bullied Gay Youth Faces 14 Years for Manslaughter
Denied Youthful Offender status, Abel Cedeno gets harsh sentence in Bronx courtroom
BY ANDY HUMM
Abel Cedeno, the bullied
gay teen convicted in
the stabbing death of
one classmate and the
slashing of another in a wild Bronx
classroom fi ght two years ago, was
sentenced to 14 years in prison for
the manslaughter of Matthew Mc-
Cree, then 15, and eight years for
assaulting Ariane Laboy, then 16,
the two sentences to run concurrently.
He also received 90 days for
possession of a knife.
Justice Michael A. Gross acknowledged
but rejected numerous
and diverse pleas for Youthful
Offender status for Cedeno from
elected offi cials, LGBTQ groups,
and organizations that provide
counseling and alternatives to
incarceration. Cedeno had just
turned 18 at the time of his crime
and would have faced one to four
years if granted Youthful Offender
status — as well as the chance to
have his record wiped clean after
serving his sentence.
Assistant District Attorney Nancy
Borko had sought a sentence of
10 to 20 years for manslaughter
and 10 years for assault to run consecutively,
for a total of 30 years.
It was a dramatic and emotional
day in the Bronx courtroom. Mc-
Cree’s aunt, Lacey Providence,
spoke, supported by Louna Dennis,
McCree’s mother, who did not
address the court.
“Matthew had a heart of gold,” the
aunt said. “We love gay, straight,
black, white. Abel has destroyed
our family.”
Outside the court, Providence
said, “I have so many happy memories
of my nephew, but the only
one that haunts me is seeing his
lifeless body.”
As Laboy’s mother spoke of the
injuries to her son and his loss of
his best friend McCree, Dennis fl ed
the courtroom shrieking in agony.
Laboy’s mom said, “I’ve always
protected my son but I could not
protect him that day. Cedeno did
not know my son. I’m sure he was
bullied, but not by my son.”
Cedeno contended that McCree
Abel Cedeno with his attorneys Thomas Shanahan and Christopher R. Lynn moments before Cedeno
learned of his sentence.
ANDY HUMM
Bronx Assistant District Attorneys Paul A. Andersen
and Nancy Borko heading into the courtroom,
where they were hoping to put Abel Cedeno
away for 30 years.
and Laboy were well known as
gang members and that they had
beaten his best friend, accounting
for his fear of them when they
charged him and started pummeling
him after harassing him that
fateful day in the classroom.
Leaving the Bronx Hall of Justice
after the sentencing, a scuffl e
broke out among the Laboy and
McCree families at the exit that led
court offi cers to tackle Laboy to the
ground and briefl y detain him.
Borko derided Cedeno as “celebrity”
defendant. At fi rst, the incident
drew massive media attention because
ANDY HUMM
it was the fi rst slaying inside
a school in decades. Then Cedeno’s
history of being bullied since the
sixth grade — and his school’s doing
nothing to help him — sparked
the city Department of Education
(DOE) to look into the chaos at his
Urban Assembly School for Wildlife
Conservation and to close it. The
violence also led the City Council’s
then-Education Committee chair,
Daniel Dromm, an out gay former
teacher, to hold daylong hearings
in October 2017 on bullying in
schools where the DOE committed
to increased resources to combat
the epidemic.
Borko also accused Cedeno of
“blaming the victims” for his testimony
that he was trying to defend
himself from their assaults on him
that day.
“He wanted to show that he was a
badass,” she said, “Saying, ‘I never
intended this to happen’ is not taking
responsibility… He continues
to blame everyone but himself.”
Borko also contended that Mc-
Cree and Laboy “saved” another
gay student at the school from suicide
when they discovered him trying
to hang himself in a stairwell.
After the sentencing, Dennis confi
rmed that account.
But Cedeno’s out gay attorney
Christopher Lynn, who represented
him pro bono, said afterwards
that McCree and Laboy had been
bullying the student and only
called school authorities when the
student moved to take his own life.
That student got a settlement from
the city, paying for a private school
education.
Cedeno’s own statement to the
court was diffi cult to hear, but he
did say, “I know I was the one who
brought the knife to school. I am
sorry for everything. I have to live
with this for the rest of my life. I
feel horrible about it every day,
morning and night. I would take it
all back if I could. I am not a monster.”
Justice Gross, in rejecting
Youthful Offender status for Cedeno,
said, “Schools should be safe
places for learning.” There was
“no legal justifi cation” for Cedeno’s
contention that he was acting in
self-defense, he said. While not
dismissing Cedeno’s history of being
bullied, he said, “That cannot
be used an excuse for murderous
rage.”
In addition to the killing of Mc-
Cree and slashing of Laboy, Gross
also expressed deep concern for
the “traumatized” students who
witnessed the fracas in the classroom.
After the sentencing, Dennis —
who is suing the city and Cedeno
for $25 million for her son’s wrongful
death — said, “I didn’t get my
50 years” — the maximum to
which Cedeno was subject — “but
I’ll take 14.”
After the sentence was read,
Cedeno was dazed and at fi rst unable
to rise from his chair to be
handcuffed and led out to prison.
He must serve at least six-sevenths
of the sentence, likely upstate in
Greenhaven or Attica, according to
Lynn.
Dennis’ civil attorney, Sanford
Rubenstein, said, “Abel Cedeno
was held accountable today…
Now it is time for the Department
of Education to be held liable for
its responsibility in this wrongful
death.”
Rubenstein cited the lack of
metal detectors in the school and
the failure to enforce the state and
➤ ABEL CEDENO SENTENCED, continued on p.31
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