The Brooklyn man convicted of pimping out a woman killed by the Gilgo Beach serial killer was hit with a sentence a year longer than what Brooklyn federal prosecutors requested.
Prosecutors asked that Akeem Cruz, 23, get 1 1/2 to two years in prison, but the judge slapped him with three years instead.
“He’s not directly responsible for her murder, but he put her in the zone of danger,” Judge Edward Korman said before handing down the harsh sentence. “It seems to me that the 24 months are not sufficient.”
Cruz had previously pleaded guilty to trafficking women from Maine to New York so they could work as prostitutes. He was with one of those women, Megan Waterman, on the 2010 night she disappeared from a Long Island hotel.
Waterman was later found dead along with nine other bodies on a deserted Long Island beach. Authorities believe most of the murders are the work of a serial killer who targeted prostitutes.