Killer linked by DNA to Yonkers, Bronx victims has pleaded guilty in both cases
A man linked by DNA to a pair of sex assault killings in Westchester and the Bronx in the early 2000s has now pleaded guilty in both cases after admitting Wednesday that he killed a Yonkers woman in 2005.
Christopher Gonzalez, 41, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Angel Serbay, a 25-year-old mother whose body was discovered wrapped in a blanket along the Sprain Brook Parkway in Greenburgh on Sept. 3, 2005. Gonzalez acknowledged strangling Serbay when acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary asked him how he killed her. But he said he couldn't remember the specifics of where he left her body, only that it was on a highway.
Gonzalez last month pleaded guilty in the Bronx to the Dec. 2, 2000, killing of Dora Almontaser, a 19-year-old who was strangled with a phone cord while housesitting at her uncle's apartment.
After Serbay's death, DNA evidence found on her body matched evidence from Almontaser's case, making it likely the same man killed both women. New York State police investigators and Bronx homicide detectives teamed up on the investigation but it took another decade for them to crack the case.
When the effort was renewed by a task force in 2016, Bronx detectives re-submitted to a national database a fingerprint found on the phone at the Almontaser murder scene. It matched Gonzalez, whose fingerprints were on file because he had not paid a fine following his arrest in a 2005 forged license case in the Bronx .
Retired Bronx homicide Detective Malcolm Reiman recalled Wednesday the jolt the fingerprint match gave the investigation.
"It was incredible, it gave us the name we were looking for," said Reiman, who attended the court hearing with state police Investigators Eugene Donnelly and Ryan Kruikshank. "But that was just the beginning. We had to build a homicide case."
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Investigators learned that Gonzalez had lived near Almontaser in the Bronx at the time she was killed and later in Yonkers Nodine Hill neighborhood, where Serbay had been staying in 2005.
They believe he met Almontaser on New York Donut, an early online dating chatline. When they interviewed other women who met him there, they learned he had been abusive before and that he often liked to take dates to pool halls. There was a pool hall on the ground floor of the home where Almontaser was killed.
On Nov. 7, 2017, Gonzalez was arrested in Florida. He had been living with his wife in Naples and was working at Toys 'R Us. Members of the task force were there and had him under surveillance. They had alerted Collier County sheriff's deputies that Gonzalez did not have a valid license and should be picked up if seen driving.
He was surprised to find investigators from New York back at the station.
"He didn't expect to be talking about murders," Donnelly said.
But Reiman said he made no admissions regarding the killings. "He's not stupid; he's very intelligent, charming," he said. "He did deny numerous things though that were undeniable."
The investigators recalled Gonzalez being very careful not to touch anything, in case he might leave his DNA behind. But they got that after obtaining a warrant and the match to the two homicides followed.
Gonzalez was indicted in the Bronx and Westchester on felony charges, including first-degree murder. Five years later he reached a plea deal with prosecutors in both counties that allowed him to plead guilty to second-degree murder in each case.
He has been promised a prison term of 20 years to life to cover both killings. He could have faced 50 years to life if convicted of both killings. Acting state Supreme Court Justice Robert Neary scheduled the Westchester sentencing for Feb. 24. Gonzalez will be sentenced in the Bronx on Feb. 3.
Serbay was a troubled young adult hanging with a tough crowd and had a record of minor arrests for drugs. She had a 5-year-old son whom she had asked her mother, Susan, to care for until she got her life back on track.
A year after her death, her mother pleaded for the public's help in finding Serbay's killer, calling her a good person but a "lost soul" trying to find her way.
She couldn't be in court on Wednesday but a close friend of Angel Serbay's, Teresa Lopez, was there, as she has been for most of Gonzalez' appearances.
Lopez met Serbay when they were in junior high and became immediate friends. She would accompany Serbay and her grandmother each weekend when Serbay competed in bowling tournaments.
They lost touch for a few years but reconnected when both were young mothers two decades ago. Lopez said she was actually stuck in traffic on the Sprain Brook Parkway on Sept. 3, 2005, not knowing it was because police were there investigating the death of her friend.
She returned to the shoulder frequently after that day to think about her friend and wonder who could have killed her. Once she had the answer she just wanted justice for her friend.
"They never gave up. They did a great job," she said, pointing to the investigators and Assistant District Attorney Nadine Nagler in the courthouse hallway. And today we got justice."
She said it was fitting that Gonzalez was caught because a fingerprint he left behind.
"That's God's miracles," she said. "God works in mysterious ways and that was (Gonzalez's) judgement day. I believe in karma. You can't get away with things forever."
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Christopher Gonzalez pleads guilty to killing Angel Serbay of Yonkers
