Queens man sentenced for kidnapping, suffocating Valerie Reyes

[The Bobster]

Queens man sentenced for kidnapping, suffocating Valerie Reyes

Javier Da Silva Rojas was hit with 30 years in prison for stuffing his bound ex-girlfriend Valerie Reyes in a red suitcase and dumping her on a Connecticut roadside.

nypost.com

Queens man sentenced for kidnapping, suffocating Valerie Reyes​

By
Rebecca Rosenberg


September 23, 2021 1:52pm
Updated

Javier Da Silva Rojas was sentenced to 30 years in prison for kidnapping Valerie Reyes and leaving her for dead. Instagram

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A Queens man was hit with 30 years in prison Thursday for stuffing his bound ex-girlfriend in a red suitcase and dumping her on a Connecticut roadside.
Javier Da Silva Rojas, 25, pleaded guilty last year in White Plains federal court to one count of kidnapping for the horrific death of his ex-flame, 24-year-old Valerie Reyes.
“The victim of this crime was in the prime of her life when it was senselessly ended by Rojas’ abhorrent act,” said Manhattan US Attorney Audrey Strauss in a statement.
Months after the pair broke up, Rojas drove to Reyes’ New Rochelle home Jan. 28, 2019, switched his phone to airplane mode and entered her apartment.
The duo got into a vicious altercation, and Reyes sustained head trauma, bruising around the face and a large hematoma to her forehead, according to prosecutors.
Rojas then kidnapped his still-breathing ex-lover, covered her mouth with several layers of packing tape, bound her feet and hands with twine, and put her in a suitcase. He ditched the piece of luggage in a wooded area on the side of a road in ritzy Greenwich, court documents state.
Valerie Reyes “was in the prime of her life” when she died at age 24.Facebook
Her family reported her missing two days later.
“In the days after, [Rojas] used her ATM card to empty her bank account and then attempted to cover up the evidence of his conduct,” said Strauss.
The dual citizen of Venezuela and Portugal — who was in the country illegally — withdrew approximately $5,350 from her bank account and sold her iPad for cash, according to prosecutors.
Authorities recovered her body on Feb. 5 — one week after she was left for dead.
The Connecticut Medical Examiner’s Office concluded that she died of homicidal asphyxiation, authorities said.
After Rojas’ arrest, he told detectives she fell off the bed and cracked her head open during rough sex — even though the pair hadn’t been together for months.
In an exclusive jailhouse interview with The Post, Rojas bawled uncontrollably and said he panicked after she lost consciousness and he was unable to revive her.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” he said at the time. “I’m a bad person.”
Valerie Reyes’ mother, Norma Sanchez, grieves for her daughter during a candlelight vigil at Glen Island Park, in New Rochelle.Tyler Sizemore/Hearst Connecticut Media via AP Valerie Reyes’ body was found inside a suitcase on a roadside in Greenwich, Connecticut.Facebook Norma Sanchez, family and friends attend the graveside service for Valerie Reyes at Greenwood Union Cemetery on February 13, 2019.Douglas Healey for NY Post
His lawyer didn’t immediately return a request for comment.