Petition to spare teen who killed mom's attacker picks up steam
A Virginia woman is fighting to block manslaughter charges filed against a Bronx high school student accused of killing a man who was attacking the 18-year-old’s mom.
Monique Santiago, 45, of Virginia Beach, was so moved by the story of Luis Moux that she created the change.org petition, which has garnered over 23,000 signatures.
“We all know murder is wrong, but I kept picturing in my mind and if I was being beat up and my son heard the commotion, he would have not called 911,” she said Thursday. “He would have protected me first.”
Moux, a football player who attends Progress High School for Professional Careers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was in his bedroom at 4:30 a.m. Aug. 14 when his mom Lorena Sesma began arguing with her ex-boyfriend Stanley Washington in the hallway of her University Heights apartment, officials said.
Bronx man chokes his mom’s ex to death after seeing him beat her
Washington followed her into the apartment and began beating her. Moux intervened and fought with Washington before putting him in a fatal chokehold.
Louis Moux, poses with his mother in a Facebook photo. ( Facebook)Moux was arrested, charged with manslaughter and released on bail. A grand jury is expected to hear the case Friday.
Santiago, an accounts payable manager, said she cried when she first read the Daily News story on the case and thought of her 25-year-old son.
“I got really emotional,” she said. “You can’t knock an 18-year-old boy for protecting his mother. He didn’t mean to kill him. His adrenaline was rushing.”
Mom of Bronx man charged in choking death happy to see son again
Santiago spoke with Moux on Thursday via speaker phone. “He’s doing OK,” she said. “His mom is doing OK.”
She said she sent the petition to the mayor’s office and the office of Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clarke.
The petition, which had garnered 23,356 supporters as of Thursday afternoon, has been so widely seen that Santiago said she got a call from someone in Italy who wanted to help.
She has also started a Fight for Luis Moux Facebook page to raise money for his medical expenses.
Bronx man charged in choking death of mom's abusive ex-boyfriend
“Luis Moux should not spend his life in prison or ONE DAY in prison for that matter due to defending his mother who could have been killed,” the petition says.
Moux was arrested, charged with manslaughter and released on bail. A grand jury is expected to hear the case Friday. (Sam Costanza/for New York Daily News)“We are asking that ALL CHARGES be dropped for Luis Moux and we stand with him in his fight for freedom.”
Angela Carrasquillo, 40, Luis' paternal aunt, said the family is overwhelmed by the support.
“We didn't know the support would be so widespread,” she said.
Santiago, who was born in Brooklyn, has taken up other cases including that of Travion Blount, a Norfolk man who got an astonishing 118 years in prison for playing a minor role in a robbery at age 15.
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