Family praises Bronx teen wounded trying to save mom from being stabbed to death by boyfriend

A brave Bronx teenager tried to save his mom from being stabbed to death by her longtime boyfriend — and was badly wounded himself in the clash, prosecutors and the victim’s shaken family said Sunday.

The 16-year-old son of slaying victim Yesenia Hall heard his mom’s screams from the bedroom of their third-floor apartment early Saturday. He rushed out to see her live-in boyfriend, Juan Rivas, in his 42-year-old mother’s bedroom, knife in hand, prosecutors said.

“I guess he was trying to blanket his mom — that’s why he received the stabbings himself,” said Hall’s brother Edwin Maldonado, 50, a commercial airline pilot and retired Army officer. “He was trying to save his mom.”

The brave teen tried to deescalate the situation but Rivas, 45, turned the knife on the boy instead, stabbing the adolescent in the neck, shoulder and cheek, prosecutors said. He then stabbed the 42-year-old Hall repeatedly, plunging the knife into her chest and killing her, prosecutors said.

The wound to his neck has left the boy temporarily unable to speak, his family said.

“He’s going to get to live,” Maldonado said. “Thank God he is out of surgery. He is in stable condition. He is not talking. He just writes right now.”

Hall’s adult daughter called 911, but Rivas ran off, prosecutors said.

“She was completely in shock of what she was seeing happen in front of her,” Maldonado said of his niece. “She couldn’t sleep because it’s vivid to her. What she saw was vivid.”

Hall’s 12-year-old son was also present for the bloodbath, prosecutors said.

“Witnessing my mother and brother get hurt like that is extremely heartbreaking,” Halls’ daughter wrote on Instagram. “I can’t stop replaying it over and over again. I miss you momma and I hope you’re watching over us. I know you were so scared.”

Medics rushed both Hall and her son from their home on Sherman Ave. near E. 163rd St. about 6:40 a.m. to Lincoln Hospital, where the mom died.

Rivas resurfaced hours later at a local hospital seeking treatment for his own wounds, prosecutors said.

Rivas’ right hand was bandaged at the wrist and palm when he appeared in Bronx Criminal Court Sunday. He wore a dark blue hoodie with a brown leather jacket layered over it.

Judge Yadhira Gonzalez-Taylor ordered him held without bail.

Prosecutors described multiple domestic incidents between Rivas and Hall, five of which involved physical violence. They also said Rivas has a prior violent felony conviction, two prior misdemeanor convictions and had failed to appear in court for one of his prior cases.

Rivas has six prior arrests in total over the past 10 years, mostly on assault charges, police said.

“I know she has received multiple previous injuries from him,” Maldonado said. “The guy is not good and he had a record before, and we have tried so much.”

“I know the city can only do so much when it becomes domestic,” he added. “There have been multiple distresses. … The list is long, God mercy.”

Neighbors of the victim said they witnessed signs of trouble.

“He was crazy,” one neighbor, who didn’t give his name, said of Rivas. “He was aggressive. Possessive. Jealous. He was everything in the book.”

Another neighbor, Shantrice Diamond, 17, said that Rivas and Hall seemed like the “perfect couple” in public but behind closed doors, she’d hear him scream at her. “He was saying, like, ‘I will strangle you, I will beat you up.’ Stuff like that,” she recounted.

“I heard them fight like two or three times,” Diamond said. “I really thought it did calm down. They were doing good. They would blast music together … until recently.”

Maldonado said the victim tried to do good by the suspect.

“My sister tried to get him to go to therapy and get some help and clean him up,” he said. “I was going to help him. He was a licensed airplane mechanic, but since he had [crime] records, he couldn’t have a real job, so for years now he hasn’t had a job.”

“I heard when they had fights, and I’ve seen them have fights in front of me before,” he added.

Hall was on disability due to scoliosis and had undergone multiple back surgeries, her brother said. Despite her hardships, she was attending college online and hoped to start working from home

“She had a certification as a medical biller,” her brother said. “She was going to start working as a medical biller while she was trying to finish her degree.”

“She’s really about her kids, no matter what,” he added. “The kids are grade A students. … That’s accredited to the mom being on top of them.”

A 32-year-old cousin of Hall described her as “loved beyond comparison by the folks around her.”

“Whoever she came in contact with would be changed for the better,” the cousin said. “She was the girl would defend anybody from a bully on the block. … She was the first one to spring into action if she saw some kind of injustice.”

“She was very jolly, she was very funny,” he added. “If we had a family meeting and she was there, we knew that some laughs would be had. It does leave a dark hole in the family now.”

Rivas’ hours on the run left family members frightened, and they posted homemade wanted posters with his photo online as they awaited his arrest.

“It was almost like a spring to action. We all wanted justice,” the cousin said. “We knew that this guy was a little bit slimy. A little bit on the other side. We just really wanted him out of the public because this guy just belongs in jail.”

The cousin is most worried about the victim’s three children.

“There are now three children, one of them wounded in the neck,” he said. “For what? It’s a rough time.”

With Roni Jacobson