NYC Man Gets 25 Years To Life In 2014 Death Of Soup Kitchen Volunteer

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- A Manhattan man, who was convicted last month of fatally striking a soup kitchen volunteer with the victim's own vehicle, was sentenced Wednesday.

Edwin Gutierrez, 49, will serve the maximum 25 years to life in prison in the death of 69-year-old Dionel Ramirez.

On Nov. 28, 2014, Ramirez left his car running outside a 7-Eleven in North Bay Shore while he went to pick up food for a local soup kitchen. Police said Gutierrez climbed into the car while Ramirez was inside the store and started to drive away.

Ramirez tried to stop Gutierrez from stealing his car when he was struck by his own vehicle, police said. The victim died at the hospital.

The judge declared Gutierrez a menace to society. "You killed a good man," the judge said, referring to the victim, WCBS 880's Mike Xirinachs reported.

The victim's wife, Blanca, fought back tears as she remembered her husband.

"My husband is a very beautiful man in my life, that man he take my whole life," she said.

Prior to sentencing, Gutierrez apologized for his crime and blamed his actions on being drunk.

"If he wasn't drunk he wouldn't have did this, but being that he was drunk, he wasn't thinking," Gutierrez's cousin, Anthony Santiago, said.

When asked whether she could forgive Gutierrez, the victim's wife said, "It's too soon for me, it's not easy."