Undocumented man gets 15 years for shooting off-duty Border Patrol agent in Manhattan robbery

Miguel Mora Nunez, 22, was sentenced to 15 years for shooting Border Patrol officer Joshua Sinclair in the face during a Hudson River robbery. A second man received 12 years for helping him escape.

Maximum sentence handed down in Manhattan shooting of Border Patrol officer

A federal judge sentenced an undocumented Dominican national to 15 years in prison Monday for shooting and seriously wounding an off-duty Border Patrol officer during a robbery in upper Manhattan last summer, NY Post Metro reports.

Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 22, received the maximum allowable term from US District Court Judge Loretta Preska in a federal courtroom packed with Border Patrol agents. Preska said a firm sentence was necessary to deter other migrants from committing crimes in the United States.

"There is an overwhelming need to send a message to people who come to the US to commit crimes," Preska said before handing down the sentence. Mora Nunez had earlier pleaded guilty to a federal weapons charge.

Mora Nunez still faces 25 years-to-life in a separate attempted murder case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office. A co-defendant, 23-year-old Christhian Aybar-Berroa — also a Dominican national in the country illegally — was separately sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison for helping Mora Nunez flee the scene on a motorbike. Both men will be deported after completing their federal sentences, according to the Manhattan US Attorney's Office.

Attack along the Hudson River

The robbery took place just after midnight in Fort Washington Park, where off-duty officer Joshua Sinclair had been sitting with a female companion along the Hudson River. Mora Nunez shot Sinclair in the face after attempting to rob him. Prosecutors said Mora Nunez had stolen another woman's cellphone just minutes earlier. Sinclair returned fire and struck his attacker twice before Mora Nunez escaped on Aybar-Berroa's moped.

Mora Nunez had crossed the Arizona border in April 2023. During his time in the US, police sources told The Post, he had accumulated a criminal record that included arrests for allegedly assaulting a pregnant woman and threatening to kill another migrant with a machete.

Tears in court, but judge unconvinced

Speaking in Spanish through an interpreter in court Monday, Mora Nunez read from written comments as he apologized for the attack while Sinclair watched from the gallery.

"I have been separated from my little girl who I love very much, I really wish to be with her and be a better role model," he said. "I wish I could go back in time and avoid everything that has happened."

Judge Preska said she respected the young father's expressed desire to improve himself, but was not persuaded that he had developed any genuine respect for the law. She pointed to prosecutors' claims that Mora Nunez had bragged about his charges to fellow inmates while held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.

"Nothing instills any confidence that he has learned to respect the law, and the sentence should reflect that," Preska said.

Victim still undergoing surgery

Officer Sinclair has not been able to return to work. More than 14 months after the attack, he remains in recovery and is still undergoing facial surgeries, prosecutors told the court.

Mora Nunez and Aybar-Berroa have both pleaded not guilty in the separate state attempted murder case brought by the Manhattan DA. The two are scheduled to appear in state court in November.

Source: NY Post Metro