'My life is torn apart': Father speaks at sentencing for Lake Worth teen who killed his son

WEST PALM BEACH — A Lake Worth Beach teenager confessed last week to killing a boy two years older than him during a fight in Greenacres in 2021.

Rudis Villatoro, who was a freshman at Lake Worth High School when he fatally shot 16-year-old Eduardo Cruz in the chest, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in exchange for a six-year prison sentence Thursday. County Judge Sherri Collins gave him credit for the nearly two years he has spent in jail since his arrest in 2021.

Cruz's father spoke quietly to the judge and Villatoro, now the same age Cruz was when he died.

"For what he did to my son, this is nothing. This is no punishment," the father said. "My life is torn apart. My family also. He killed him."

Collins, who stood in for Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer on Thursday, expressed her sympathies before sentencing Villatoro to prison. The teen listened with his hands clasped, clad in the red jumpsuit reserved for juvenile offenders.

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Teen boys antagonized one another at movie theater

Investigators said Villatoro and Cruz were strangers to one another when they got into a verbal spat outside a Lake Worth Beach movie theater on Aug. 15, 2021. Villatoro, 14 at the time, told his cousin about the encounter later as they began the drive home.

He said Cruz had stared at him and called him names when the younger boy didn't look away.

"Do you know who I am?" Villatoro said the older boy shouted. "What are you staring at?"

At the intersection of Lake Worth Road and South 57th Avenue in Greenacres, Villatoro pointed to a blue car with its bumper stuck on the raised curb and the teenage driver inspecting it. That was the stranger from the theater, Villatoro said.

His cousin pulled his car in front of Cruz's and shouted at him from the open window: "Do you have a problem with my cousin?"

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Witnesses told investigators that the older teen seemed confused until the back passenger window rolled down and revealed Villatoro. Cruz approached the car then, opened the back door and began swinging.

Assistant State Attorney Chrichet Mixon said Villatoro pulled a gun from his pocket and shot Cruz in the chest as the older boy tried to pull him out of the car. Cruz staggered back, slammed the car door shut and started to walk, then run, away.

Nearby surveillance cameras recorded Villatoro as he stuck his arm out of the car and shot at Cruz once more. He missed, and his cousin drove them away, shouting: "Why the (expletive) did you do that?"

Defense attorney said shooting was justified

Responding deputies found Cruz collapsed in a nearby bush. Paramedics pronounced him dead soon afterward. Investigators received a call from the mother of Villatoro's cousin that evening informing them that her son was involved in an incident and wanted to speak to law enforcement.

Villatoro's cousin described the shooting, telling officers he thought his cousin would fight Cruz — not shoot him. Villatoro's arrest report does not say how or why the teen had a gun to begin with.

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Deputies arrested the 14-year-old and charged him with murder. He'd anticipated their arrival, sending a message to a friend on Snapchat: "What should I do after they get me?"

Tell the officers you blacked out, the friend wrote back. Assistant Public Defender James Snowden opted for a self-defense claim instead, asking Suskauer to drop the charge. Snowden called it a justifiable use of force. Suskauer disagreed.

Mixon reduced the charge to manslaughter from murder in exchange for Villatoro's guilty plea Thursday. The teen also pleaded guilty to delinquent possession of a firearm and shooting a gun from a car, nodding along to each charge. He nodded some more as the judge encouraged him to pursue his GED while incarcerated.

"I hope you can make the best of whatever services are available in the Department of Corrections," Collins said. "Take advantage of them while you're there, because you're not going to be doing much of anything else."

Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach County judge sentences Lake Worth teen for killing Eduardo Cruz