Bronx School Stabber Sentenced To 14 Years Behind Bars, DA Says

THE BRONX, NY — A Bronx man will spend more than a decade behind bars for stabbing one classmate to death and maiming another at their high school nearly two years ago, prosecutors said.

Abel Cedeno, 20, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for killing 15-year-0ld Matthew McCree in a classroom at the now-closed Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation in September 2017, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said Tuesday.

Cedeno will also be subject to post-release supervision for the bloody attack in which he also wounded another student, Ariane Laboy, prosecutors said. He was convicted of manslaughter, assault and criminal possession of a weapon on July 15.

"His explosion of rage has left so many lives in ruins, including his own. Now he will spend many years in prison," Clark said in a statement. "We, as a society, must do everything to prevent violence in our schools."

McCree's killing — reportedly the first in a New York City public school in more than two decades — shocked the city and prompted the Department of Education to train teachers on de-escalating dangerous situations and review its protocol for reporting bullying.

Cedeno got into a dispute with McCree and Laboy during their U.S. history class on Sept. 27, 2017, prosecutors say. Cedeno was on his way out of the classroom when he was hit with a pencil or a paper ball, which McCree apologized for throwing, according to the DA's office.

After challenging McCree to a fight, Cedeno plunged a switchblade into his heart and then stabbed Laboy five times when he tried to defend McCree, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors say Laboy and McCree did not know or socialize with Cedeno before the attack. But Cedeno reportedly came out as bisexual after he was arrested and maintained that he had been bullied with slurs for years.

"Everything that happened that day almost two years ago, I’m not the same person I was two years ago," Cedeno said at his sentencing, according to the New York Post. "I have been sorry about everything, for the damage I caused, for hurting two families."

Cedeno's sentence also includes an eight-year prison term for the assault charge and a 90 days in jail for the weapon possession charge that will run concurrently with the longer prison sentence, the Bronx DA's office said.