A Dominican national in the United States illegally has been sentenced to 15 years in federal prison for shooting and seriously wounding an off-duty Border Patrol officer during a Manhattan robbery last summer. The judge imposed the maximum allowable sentence, saying it should serve as a warning to others who come to the country to commit crimes.
Miguel Francisco Mora Nunez, 22, received the sentence Monday from US District Court Judge Loretta Preska in a federal courtroom filled with Border Patrol agents.
Preska said a severe punishment was necessary to deter other migrants from breaking the law.
“There is an overwhelming need to send a message to people who come to the US to commit crimes,” the judge said before sentencing Mora Nunez, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to a federal weapons charge.
Mora Nunez also faces a separate attempted-murder case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which carries a potential sentence of 25 years to life.
Christhian Aybar-Berroa, another Dominican migrant, was separately sentenced to 12 years and seven months in federal prison for helping Mora Nunez flee the violent July 2025 robbery on a motorbike. Aybar-Berroa is 23.
Both men are in the US illegally and are expected to be deported after completing their prison sentences, according to the Manhattan US Attorney’s Office. They pleaded guilty to possessing ammunition as illegal aliens.
Prosecutors said Mora Nunez crossed into the United States through the Arizona border in April 2023.
During his time in the country, he accumulated a substantial criminal record, according to police sources who spoke with The Post. His arrests included allegations that he assaulted a pregnant woman and threatened to kill another migrant with a machete.
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Mora Nunez fought back tears in court Monday as he apologized for the shooting. The wounded officer, Joshua Sinclair, watched from the gallery.
“I have been separated from my little girl who I love very much, I really wish to be with her and be a better role model,” Mora Nunez said in Spanish in written remarks translated by an interpreter.
“I wish I could go back in time and avoid everything that has happened,” he added.
According to police, Mora Nunez shot Sinclair in the face after attempting to rob the off-duty Border Patrol officer, who was sitting with a female companion on a rock along the Hudson River in Fort Washington Park shortly after midnight. Prosecutors said Mora Nunez had stolen another woman’s cellphone just minutes earlier.
After being shot, Sinclair returned fire and struck Mora Nunez twice, prosecutors said. Mora Nunez then escaped on a moped driven by Aybar-Berroa.
Preska said she respected Mora Nunez’s stated desire to become a better father but remained unconvinced that he had learned to follow the law. The judge cited prosecutors’ claims that he bragged about his charges to other inmates while detained at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
“Nothing instills any confidence that he has learned to respect the law, and the sentence should reflect that,” Preska said.
Sinclair has not been able to return to work and continues to recover from the attack, undergoing facial surgeries 14 months later, according to prosecutors.
Mora Nunez and Aybar-Berroa, who is also facing charges in state court, have pleaded not guilty in that case. They are scheduled to return to court in November.
