Aquilino Torres Sentenced To Over 24 Years In Prison For Brutal Kidnapping Of Mother And Child

 Damian Williams, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced today that AQUILINO TORRES was sentenced to 292 months in prison for his kidnapping and stalking of an adult woman (“Victim-1”) and the kidnapping of her seven-year-old son (“Minor Victim-1”) in or around October 2020.  TORRES was convicted following a one-week jury trial in July 2021 before U.S. District Judge Denise L. Cote, who imposed today’s sentence.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Aquilino Torres carried out a brutal kidnapping of a 7-year-old child and his mother, and threatened to kill the child.  He held his victims captive and physically abused both mother and child.  Thanks to the FBI and NYPD, Torres was apprehended, prosecuted, and convicted of these horrific crimes, and has now been sentenced to a lengthy prison term.”

According to court documents and the evidence presented at the trial of TORRES:

On or about October 5, 2020, TORRES texted and called Victim-1 hundreds of times, including a text threatening to “kick [Minor Victim-1’s] teeth out.”  Later that night, TORRES took Victim-1 and Minor Victim-1 to a motel in the Bronx, where he hit Minor Victim-1 in the face and assaulted Victim-1, breaking both sides of her jaw.  While TORRES assaulted Victim-1, he told her that he would hang Victim-1 and that Minor Victim-1 would be found dead in the river.  TORRES then had sex with Victim-1 against her will.  For the next five days, TORRES held Victim-1 and Minor Victim-1 against their will at an apartment in Washington Heights, without medical treatment for Victim-1’s broken jaw.  On or about October 10, 2020, Victim-1 and Minor Victim-1 escaped from the apartment and were admitted to a hospital shortly thereafter.  In response to their escape, TORRES once again sent Victim-1 hundreds of threatening text messages and called Victim-1 hundreds of times.  For example, TORRES texted Victim-1, telling her that he had put GPS on her phone and that, if he made the decision to go looking for her, “there won’t be turning back.”  TORRES then followed through on those threats and attempted to track down Victim-1 and also posted nude photographs of Victim-1 on the internet. 

At the time of the events described above, TORRES had absconded from parole supervision, having been placed on such supervision following a 2014 New York State conviction for second degree assault against the mother of TORRES’s children, who was then pregnant. 

TORRES, 27, was found guilty after trial of (i) one count of kidnapping, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1201(a)(1) and (b); (ii) one count of kidnapping of a minor, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1201(a)(1), (b), and (g); and (iii) one count of stalking, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2261A(2)(A) and (B), 2261(b)(3), and 2265A. 

Mr. Williams praised the outstanding investigative work of the FBI-NYPD Violent Crimes Task Force.