A deranged Bronx man who senselessly stabbed his estranged NYPD officer wife to death in 2022 was sentenced to 24 years behind bars yesterday — as her devastated family made it clear that they do not forgive him.
Argenis Baez, 37, hacked Officer Arianna Reyes-Gomez to death in her Bronx apartment during a domestic dispute in June 2022 and bizarrely claimed in court that her police partner was “the one who told me to kill.”
Relatives and dozens of uniformed officers flooded the packed Bronx courtroom yesterday, wearing purple in support of domestic violence awareness, News12 reported.
Family members of the slain cop addressed Baez directly, holding back tears during their emotional victim impact statements.
“There’s no forgiveness when there’s no remorse,” her sister Julissa told the court, slamming Baez for his actions.
“You didn’t just kill a woman … you killed dreams, a future and so much more that will never be,” another family member said, according to the station.
Despite the sicko being slapped with a lengthy prison sentence, some say it is not enough.
“Twenty-four years isn’t enough for this coward, he should never see the light of day again. Officer Gomez was a good cop, a great person and the greatest mother — she helped so many people, and she had so much to live for,” a cop who knew Reyes-Gomez said yesterday.
The killer addressed the court during sentencing, pleading with Reyes-Gomez’s family for forgiveness as he was “going through a difficult time,” and appeared to shift blame and minimize his actions, according to the outlet.
Baez will spend the next 24 years behind bars and five years’ supervised release after pleading guilty to first-degree manslaughter in January, according to Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark.
“Hopefully this sentence will bring some solace to her family, who have turned their pain into purpose by supporting efforts against domestic violence,” Clark said.
Reyes-Gomez, who was hailed as an “angel on this Earth,” had only been with the NYPD since 2019 and shared a young son with her killer.
Her last words during the brawl were “my son,” as she pleaded with her former partner not to kill her for the sake of their child, who was not home at the time of the murder, News 12 reported.
Prosecutors alleged Baez forced his way into his former partner’s apartment on Grand Concourse near East 156th Street in the early hours of June 13, 2022, confronting Reyes-Gomez in a dispute, before stabbing her eight times.
The off-duty cop managed to call a relative, who called 911 — and cops were led to Reyes-Gomez’s body “through a trail of blood.”
Shortly after Reyes-Gomez’s murder, Baez “confessed” to an aunt, who got her son to call the cops, and a warrant for his arrest was issued, and bloody clothes were retrieved from his apartment, The Post previously reported.
Baez turned himself in later that day at a local precinct, where he was slapped with a slew of charges.
