Rebecca Baker
rebaker@lohud.com
Walter Maddox yelled and kicked a courtroom wall Monday after a judge sentenced him to life without parole for raping, strangling and killing a woman inside a Yonkers laundry in 2008.
The judge then sentenced the Yonkers resident to another 157 years in prison on top of the life sentence for two other strangulation rapes in Yonkers that year.
During his sentencing, which was interrupted by a fire alarm at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains, Maddox, a 32-year-old father of two, described himself as a hardworking man who took care of his children.
"I didn't commit a lot of these crimes," he said. "I am not an animal, I am not a monster, I am not a murderer, I am not a sexual predator."
A jury convicted Maddox of first-degree murder, first-degree rape and other felonies in the strangulation death of Roberta Galicia-Lagos, an employee of the Yonkers Laundromat, on Dec. 8, 2008. He was also convicted of raping and choking a woman he met in O'Boyle Park on June 30, 2008, and of raping his ex-girlfriend in his sister's Buena Vista Avenue apartment on Aug. 31 that year.
Maddox lived in the south-side neighborhood where all three attacks took place. DNA evidence connected him to all three crimes.
After learning his sentence, Maddox buried his face in his hands and wiped his eyes. As he was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs, past his family in the front row, he shouted to them and kicked the wall.
Defense lawyer Harvey Loeb had asked the judge to set aside the conviction, saying Maddox was unfairly tried for all three rapes at once. When that request was denied, he asked the judge to give Maddox a sentence that included a possibility of parole.
"Leave open the possibility that Mr. Maddox can reform his life," he said.
But acting state Supreme Court Justice William A. Wetzel, who presided over the trial, said the state allows life sentences so judges can send a message that "some crimes cannot be forgiven."
"I'm fully satisfied that this is that type of crime," he said. "I take note of how cold-hearted this murder was."
The judge also told Maddox that the "overwhelming" DNA evidence belied his claim of innocence and that his defense was to try to tarnish the victims' reputations.
Maddox claimed that his ex-girlfriend made up the rape story because she suspected he was cheating, and he said the woman from the park was a prostitute and that he paid her $200 for sex. He implicated a neighbor in Galicia-Lagos' rape and slaying, but the neighbor's DNA didn't match any evidence at the scene.
Assistant District Attorney Fredric Green, who prosecuted Maddox, read a victim impact statement from Isabel Galicia-Lagos, who shared the family's ordeal in taking her sister's body back to Mexico for burial. She said that while her family members still grieve, they were grateful that Maddox would go to prison.
"We are satisfied and at peace, because he is a danger to society and will not be able to hurt any more innocent people," she wrote.
Green then read a statement from Maddox's ex-girlfriend, who said she was devastated after Maddox raped her and is angry because she will have to live with the memory for the rest of her life.
"I feel as though he has no remorse or feelings about what he did to me," she wrote. "I wish that he could feel the pain that I feel."
The ex-girlfriend and the woman from O'Boyle Park testified against Maddox at trial but did not attend the sentencing because they didn't want to see him again, Green said.
In a statement, District Attorney Janet DiFiore credited Yonkers police and the Westchester County lab for linking Maddox to all three rapes.
"This defendant is a sexual predator and murderer whose sentence appropriately reflects the depravity of his crimes," she said.
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