A 22-year-old Dominican national was sentenced to 15 years in prison for shooting and seriously wounding an off-duty Border Patrol officer during a brazen Manhattan robbery last summer, with the judge saying the punishment should serve as a warning to others who come to the US to commit crimes.
Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez received the sentence Monday from US District Court Judge Loretta Preska in a federal courtroom filled with Border Patrol agents.
Preska said a lengthy prison term was necessary to deter other migrants from breaking the law.
“There is an overwhelming need to send a message to people who come to the US to commit crimes,” the judge said before imposing the maximum sentence allowed for Mora Nunez, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal weapons charge.
Mora Nunez also faces a separate attempted-murder case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life.
In a separate proceeding, 23-year-old Christhian Aybar-Berroa, also from the Dominican Republic, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison for helping Mora Nunez flee the violent July 2025 robbery on a motorbike.
According to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office, both men are in the US illegally and will be deported after completing their prison terms. They pleaded guilty to possessing ammunition as illegal aliens.
Prosecutors said Mora Nunez crossed the Arizona border in April 2023.
During his time in the US, he accumulated a substantial criminal record, police sources told The Post. His arrests included allegations that he assaulted a pregnant woman and threatened to kill another migrant with a machete.
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Mora Nunez choked back tears in court Monday as he apologized for the attack. The wounded officer, Joshua 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,” Mora Nunez said in Spanish in written comments translated by an interpreter.
“I wish I could go back in time and avoid everything that has happened,” he added.
According to police, Mora Nunez shot Sinclair in the face after attempting to rob the off-duty Border Patrol officer, who was sitting with a female companion on a rock along the Hudson River in Fort Washington Park shortly after midnight. Prosecutors said Mora Nunez had stolen another woman’s cellphone only minutes earlier.
After being shot in the face, Sinclair returned fire and struck Mora Nunez twice, prosecutors said. Mora Nunez then fled on a moped driven by Aybar-Berroa.
Preska said she admired the young father’s stated desire to change his life but remained unconvinced that he had learned to respect the law. The judge cited prosecutors’ claims that Mora Nunez had bragged about his charges to other 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.
Sinclair has been unable to return to work and remains in recovery, undergoing facial surgeries 14 months after the attack, prosecutors said.
Mora Nunez and Aybar-Berroa, who is also charged in state court, have pleaded not guilty in that case. They are scheduled to return to court in November.