A 46-year-old Bronx man accused of knifing a neighbor to death for double parking next to his car, leaving the teen victim to die in his father’s arms, will be spending the next 16 years behind bars, prosecutors said Saturday.
Vladimir Lopez German was hit with the stiff sentence after he pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter charges for stabbing 19-year-old Dominic Aguilera in the heart outside the Morris Heights apartment building where they both lived on April 18, 2024, the Bronx District Attorney’s Office said.
German, an Uber driver, was angered that Aguilera had double-parked next to his car, blocking him in, cops said. Even though Aguilera moved his vehicle, German still fought with the younger man and knifed him to death.
As part of his plea arrangement, German will be facing a sentence three years shy of his victim’s age, officials said. He’s also sentenced to five years probation.
German was arrested about a day after he stabbed Aguilera on Featherbed Lane near Inwood Ave.
The victim and his father, Jose Cruz, were getting ready to leave for work together at around 8:20 a.m. when German pounded on their door demanding the teen move his vehicle so he could get to work.
Aguilera went downstairs and moved his silver Mercedes sedan a few feet away, but German was still enraged, the father told the Daily News at the time.
German yelled at Aguilera and stabbed him across the chest — penetrating his heart — said Cruz, 52. The bleeding youth staggered into a nearby Morris Heights deli, where his father rushed to join him.
“I saw my son die. He passed away in my arms,” said the dad, who employed Aguilera at his Mount Vernon auto body shop. “Our whole family is in shock. We never expected anything like this.”
Paramedics rushed Aguilera to Lincoln Hospital, where he was officially pronounced dead.
The victim’s dad said he was haunted by Aguilera’s last words.
“Dad, don’t let me die,” he recalled his son saying.
German jumped into his sedan and sped off before law enforcement arrived. Witnesses quickly identified him as the killer to police, who fanned out looking for him.
Cops charged German with murder, manslaughter and weapons possession.
Double parking in the area happens all the time, said the manager of the deli where Aguilera died.
“People double-park cars and block people who are legally parked, so when you want to get out, you can’t get out,” Wendy Reinoso said. “That’s what happened here.”
Reinoso recalled seeing Aguilera staggering into her deli covered in blood.
“When the kid came in, he was bleeding and then I called 911,” she said. “He was bleeding a lot.”
Reinoso said the young man died on the floor of her bodega as workers applied pressure to his wound.
“He then fell down on the floor,” Reinoso told The News as she pointed to the spot where Aguilera collapsed. “We hold the blood, but he passed right there.”
Reinoso’s husband and co-worker, Omar Reyes, said German had been heading to work when he found his vehicle blocked by Aguilera’s car.
“The other guy had to go to work. He works as a … driver. I know he works very hard for his family,” Reyes said. “Now it’s all gone for him over a parking spot.”
“They were very peaceful. I don’t know what happened,” Reinoso said about German and Aguilera, who were both customers at the deli. “You lose your patience just like that.”
