Oquendo may be sentenced Monday
TROY, N.Y. » The man convicted last year of killing his stepdaughter was scheduled to be sentenced in Rensselaer County Court on Thursday afternoon.
However, his sentencing was again pushed back.
Johnny Oquendo was convicted Nov. 17 of second- degree murder, criminal obstruction of breathing and unlawful concealment of a corpse, with jurors taking less than three hours to determine Oquendo beat, strangled and suffocated his 21-year- old stepdaughter Noel Alkaramla to death in his 3rd Street apartment on Nov. 22, 2015, shortly after a co-worker said he dropped Alkaramla off near Oquendo’s apartment.
Alkaramla’s body was pulled from the Hudson River nearly five weeks after her disappearance, near the USS Slater in Albany.
Oquendo was originally scheduled to be sentenced at the end of December.
However, that sentencing was postponed due to issues with Oquendo’s presentencing report.
Then on Jan. 22, Oquendo filed motion documents in court claiming that he was denied effective assistance of counsel at trial by public defender Bill Roberts. He also filed motions to have the verdict set aside, which - if
granted - would lead to a new trial.
According to court documents, on Feb. 1, the court relieved Oquendo from the public defender’s office and appointed Trevor Hannigan from the conflict defenders office to represent him.
The papers say Oquendo believes that he did not receive a satisfactory level or pre- trial consultation with his trial counsel, even though Oquendo’s motion papers indicates that he and his trial counsel met at least six times at the Rensselaer County Correctional Facility for purposes of consultation, and that there were also several face- to- face meeting between the defendant and his trial counsel at the Rensselaer County Courthouse.
The documents go on to state Oquendo said the discussions with his trial counsel were, “key talks, dealing with sensitive matters.”
Then on Feb. 12, Oquendo filed new motion papers seeking to relieve the conflict defenders office from further representing him and to permit him to represent himself.
On Thursday afternoon, Judge Andrew Ceresia denied all of Oquendo’s motions — except for Oquendo being able to represent himself during sentencing. Cer- esia also said Hannigan can stay by Oquendo’s side during the hearing and sentencing in case he needs any legal advice.
“I would like to object to not having received in a timely manner, the presentence report or any of the papers that I have requested,” Oquendo said to Ceresia, while also noting that he believes he should be entitled to more time to review those reports and papers since he was only given those documents right before Thursday’s court hearing.
After taking a short recess break, Ceresia ruled that Oquendo should have been given at least one court day notice and since that was not completed ahead of time, Ceresia granted Oquendo’s request.
Ceresia said Oquendo can review his documents from now until Monday morning, when he is due back in court for his sentencing proceeding at 10 a.m.
Oquendo faces as much as 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge, while the concealment count is also a felony that carries a maximum sentence of 2 to 4 years in prison. The strangulation charge is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of one year in jail.