Bronx man sentenced for murder outside Hempstead bar, DA says
Daniel Abrego Davila, 33, was convicted of second degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon on Nov. 27, 2018. Credit: Nassau Count District Attorney
A Bronx man was sentenced Monday to 25 years to life in the stabbing death of a Freeport man in Hempstead in 2016.
Daniel Abrego Davila, 33, was convicted on Nov. 27 of second-degree murder and criminal possession of a weapon.
“Rolando Cruz was savagely stabbed by this defendant during a fight outside of a bar,” Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas said in a news release Monday. “This sentence ensures that this murderer will spend many years behind bars for this reprehensible crime.”
Davila and two friends were attempting to enter the Nuevo Arco Iris bar on Fulton Avenue in Hempstead on April 10, 2016, shortly after 1 a.m. but a bouncer wouldn’t let them in, according to a news release. At the same time Rolando Cruz, 39, of Freeport, was leaving the bar.
Prosecutors said Cruz, a landscaper, insulted Davila’s masculinity. An enraged Davila, with the help of his friends, attacked Cruz, stabbing him about five times in the neck, torso, arm and back, prosecutors said.
Cruz collapsed in front of the bar and was pronounced dead at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola at 1:35 a.m.
The friends, William Lopez, 36 of Hempstead, and Jorge Poshon, 31, of Freeport, testified against Davila at trial but also pleaded guilty to gang assault and hindering prosecution, respectively.
Davila was arrested Feb. 19, 2017, in Hempstead.
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