25 years to life in 2010 fatal shooting

Brandon Caceres, 8, stepped to a courtroom lectern Tuesday, determined to tell the man who shot his father to death how the loss has affected him.

The son of murder victim Geremias Caceres started strongly as he faced Ralph Guerrier, convicted last month of second-degree murder and attempted robbery. But his voice shook as tears fell and he held his face in his hands as he remembered his last birthday.

"Now I have to cut the cake alone, because my dad is gone," Brandon said, bringing many listeners to tears themselves. "I wish I could tell my dad all the things I've done in school."

Soon afterward, State Supreme Court Justice Mark Cohen gave Guerrier, 26, the maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison for killing Caceres in January 2010 in Huntington Station.

"In this case, it is simply not sufficient," said Cohen, lamenting he could not give Guerrier more time.

Caceres and his older son, Dennis, 17 at the time, were held up on the street in front of their home. Guerrier's two accomplices said he shot Caceres when he offered them his cellphone instead of following an order to get on the ground.

Tuesday, dozens of family and friends came to court to see Guerrier sentenced in Riverhead.

Dennis Caceres, now 19, wrote a statement read by his girlfriend, Sara Perix. He wrote that he wished Guerrier had met his father. "A true son of God, that was my father," he said in his statement. "I wish I could bring him back to introduce him [to Guerrier], someone who had nothing to do but hurt people."

Ivonne Perix, Sara's mother and a family friend, read a statement from Blanca Caceres, the victim's widow.

"They marked my life forever," she said of Guerrier and the two accomplices who testified against him, "and now I feel an eternal emptiness. Geremias was my everything. . . . He was my right hand. He made me complete."

Without him, she said she can no longer pay for Dennis' college education and is about to lose their house. "This is all due to you, Ralph," she said.

Assistant District Attorney Glenn Kurtzrock reminded Cohen that Guerrier was on parole for a previous violent robbery when he killed Caceres. He said Guerrier "is an unrepentant recidivist who targets the Hispanic community. He had done nothing with his life but cause misery."

Guerrier responded briefly.

"I wasn't sitting around doing nothing, like you said. Even though you all found me guilty, I didn't necessarily do it," he said.

Afterward, Ivonne Perix said it was "so unfair" that the family and community lost a kind and religious man in this way.

Many in the audience wore tags with Caceres' picture and English and Spanish translations of a Bible verse he liked, John 11:25. It reads: "Jesus said unto her, 'I am the resurrection, and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.' "