Elisaul Perez sentenced to 20 years for rock-throwing attack that killed GuiYing Ma in Queens
NEW YORK -- Tuesday was sentencing day for the man who fatally attacked an Asian grandmother with a rock as she was sweeping a sidewalk in Queens.
The incident happened in late 2021, and 61-year-old GuiYing Ma succumbed to her injuries months later.
In court, supporters faced her killer for the first time.
The friend and landlord of the victim was brought to tears thinking of how much the community rallied behind her and her surviving husband the last year.
"They are nobody and they have many people helping him and helping us," Yihung Hsieh said.
On the day after Thanksgiving in 2021, Ma had been sweeping the landlord's property on 38th Avenue in Jackson Heights when 33-year-old Elisaul Perez threw a rock at her head twice. Months later, Ma died from complications of blunt impact injury to her head.
Records showed Perez had more than a dozen arrests dating to 2009. On Tuesday, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for manslaughter in the first degree.
Jennifer Wu, the family's attorney, read a statement from Ma's husband, who CBS2 spoke to in March, but has since moved back to China to be with their son and grandchildren.
"Our children usually cry before they have meals because they miss their mother or grandmother," Wu said. "He should be taken away so he can never hurt anyone else again. That is what justice means to me."
"I feel peace he's not on the street again," Hsieh said.
"Twenty years will serve justice. It will also send a message to everyone else that violence is never the answer," Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said.
Perez sat with his head down most of the time as the victim impact statements were read.
While Perez was never charged with a hate crime, this incident came at a time when four Asian Americans were killed in New York City in a two-month span.
More than $200,000 was raised so Ma could be given a proper funeral. Her husband said despite his now lonely days, he will be forever touched by the community here.