A Palestinian man is sentenced to prison for a fatal shooting after a custody exchange
WELLSBORO — A Bethlehem man has been sentenced to 15 to 35 years in state prison for a fatal shooting in Tioga County that occurred after a custody exchange of a 2-year-old.
Leonardo Pagan-Acevedo, 33, was convicted Wednesday in district court of third-degree murder, to which he pleaded guilty in October.
He admitted to fatally shooting Jesus Iran Alicia-Santiago, 31, of Buffalo, New York, at the Liberty Interchange on Route 15 around 3 p.m. on August 30.
Denisa Alvarez-Matias, 33, of York, the child's mother, is awaiting trial on charges of hindering apprehension and endangering the welfare of a child.
A charge of conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed in September 2022. She is free on $25,000 bail.
The police affidavit provided the following account of events before and after the parents exchanged the child:
Alvarez-Matias was upset because Alicia-Santiago was in a new relationship.
She was accompanied on the trip to Liberty by Pagan-Acevedo, who she is dating, according to social media posts.
Alvarez-Matias dropped Pagan-Acevedo off in a restaurant parking lot at the highway interchange while she went to pick up her child.
She returned to the restaurant parking lot and Alicia-Santiago followed her.
During an argument, Pagan-Acevedo retrieved a .45-caliber handgun from the car's glove compartment and fired several shots at Alicia-Santiago in his car.
Pagan-Acevedo and Alvarez-Matias left the scene. An autopsy revealed that Alicia-Santiago was hit once when the bullet hit his spleen.
He was able to drive to a gas station on the other side of the interchange, where he was found unconscious in his car. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The couple had separated in their native Puerto Rico and both moved to the United States several months before the incident, police said.
Charges against Pagan-Acevedo of aggravated assault, possession of a firearm without a license, possession of a criminal weapon, propelling a missile into an occupied vehicle and endangering the welfare of a child were dismissed.
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