WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — Fernando Jimenez Meza, 42, was sentenced today (Dec. 18) to 37 years to life in prison for the 2024 killing of 15-year-old Michael Raimondi and the shooting of the teen’s mother and brother, Westchester County District Attorney Susan Cacace said.
“In an instant, the defendant forever changed the course of the Raimondi family’s lives, stealing their elder son from them and ensuring they would never bear witness to the man he would have become,” Cacace said in a press statement. “But what the defendant could not erase was Michael Raimondi’s spirit, which will live on every day through his courageous family and all who were privileged enough to know him. The light Michael has shone can never be extinguished.”
According information provided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Jimenez had been deported from the United States 20 years ago and illegally re-entered the country sometime before the shootings.
Judge George Fufidio sentenced Jimenez Meza to an indeterminate term of 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder, a class A felony, and 12 years in prison for each of two counts of attempted second-degree murder, class B felonies, with one of those sentences to run consecutively to the murder charge.
Permanent orders of protection were issued on behalf of the victims. Jimenez Meza pleaded guilty in October to the murder charge, the two counts of attempted murder and other related felonies.
On Oct. 28, 2024, following a verbal dispute at the Raimondi household, Jimenez Meza left the home, retrieved a revolver from his car, returned to the home and shot Christina Raimondi.
After shooting Christina, Jimenez Meza went into her sons’ bedroom and shot her two sons — Michael, 15, and Matthew, 13 — multiple times. Michael died from his injuries.
In a statement read aloud in court, Christina Raimondi said, “The grief of losing my son is a lingering pain that follows me every day. It is a fire in my chest and a knife in my throat; unbearable, yet I have to keep going. I have his younger brother, Matthew, to keep moving for. But how do we get past all the trauma?”
The investigation was conducted by the New York State Police, with assistance from the Westchester County Police Department and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office.
The case was prosecuted by Trial Division Chief Nadine Nagler and Violent Criminal Enterprise Bureau Chief James Bavero.
Information courtesy of Westchester County District Attorney's Office.
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