A Brooklyn judge is really making this killer pay!
Judge Vincent Del Giudice called murderous gang member Gilberto Serrano “vicious and senseless” before hitting him with the maximum 25-years-to-life sentence — and then ordering him to pony up $375 in court fees out of his “inmate funds.”
Serrano, 25, was convicted earlier this month of fatally stabbing Abel Xochimitl, 20, because he mistakenly suspected the younger man was in a rival gang.
“You asked that the surcharges be waived because you have no money,” said Del Giudice, after Serrano had tried to weasel out of paying the mandatory fees. “I direct that these be taken out of your inmate funds.”
More than a dozen of Xochimitl’s heartbroken relatives, some wearing T-shirts bearing his face, gathered in court to stare down the killer.
“I would want it if there was a death penalty because they would give it to him,” Xochimitl’s mother, Sofia Cuetlach, 52, said before the sentencing.
Serrano refused to speak when asked if he had anything to say about killing Xochimitl in Bensonhurst on July 14, 2012.
Del Giudice had sentenced Miguel Juarez, 26, who also stabbed Xochimitl during the attack, to 25 years to life earlier this month.
The two men asked Xochimitl, “Que barrio?” — which in gang parlance means, “What gang are you in?” — then slashed his jugular and punctured his lung with a broken bottle and a knife.