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Luis Figueroa, 42, first took a plea deal from the government that called for him to serve 26 years in a federal penitentiary.
Then he abruptly withdrew his plea, took his chances with a trial – and lost.
Federal jurors in Newark convicted Figueroa in May 2022 of kidnapping, criminal sexual abuse, illegal gun possession and assaulting a federal employee.
Because there’s no parole in the federal prison system, he must serve out the entire 43-year sentence handed down earlier this week by U.S. District Judge John Michael Vazquez.
What's more: Should he live to 85 and be released from custody, the sentence requires Figueroa to also spend another five years under federal supervision.
Figueroa – who previously had addresses in Ridgefield, NJ and the Bronx – was “fueled with anger” and bent on revenge when he kidnapped, raped and assaulted the mother of his son, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said.
The rampage had an “almost unimaginable level of violence and depravity,” the U.S. attorney said.
Figueroa had been wanted on outstanding DWI warrants as he waited outside the Hazleton, PA apartment of his former girlfriend, with whom he had a young child, the morning of June 6, 2014.
“I told you I was going to kill you,” he said after hitting her in the face with a 12-gauge shotgun.
Figueroa also tangled with his former girlfriend’s sister, who was eight months pregnant at the time, knocking her down a flight of stairs. Another family member pulled his child into a bedroom for protection.
Figueroa then pointed the shotgun at his ex-girlfriend and forced her into the back seat of his car. He drove to New Jersey, eventually stopping at a rest area near the federal Kittatinny Point Visitor’s Center, 60 miles from Hazleton.
Figueroa got out to ditch the shotgun, and the woman quickly slid into the driver’s seat. She was bleeding from the head and fading in and out of consciousness when she reached a local post office in Warren County, responders said at the time.
Back at the rest stop, Figueroa assaulted a national parks service worker, slamming his head against a door and threatening worse unless he handed over the keys to his minivan.
Figueroa then drove the minivan another 60 miles to Hosanna Motors in Paterson, where he tried trading it in for a Cadillac Escalade, authorities said.
When the salesperson refused, Figueroa got a portable gas can, filled it at a nearby service station and then returned to the dealership. After a brief struggle with an employee, Figueroa doused an office shed with the gasoline and ignited a fire that engulfed it.
He also set himself on fire in the process and extinguished the flames with a garden hose before racing toward New York City in a stolen Escalade.
The SUV slammed into a marked Port Authority Suburban occupied by an officer at the George Washington Bridge’s upper-level toll plaza, pushing it onto a concrete divider.
Figueroa then continued across the bridge, hitting a PAPD sedan at the 179th Street ramp.
He abandoned the disabled Cadillac on the ramp and tried to run, but Port Authority police captured him. They also found a machete in the car.
Figueroa was brought to Weill Cornell Medical Center for treatment of burns from the dealership fire. Three PAPD officers were treated for cuts and bruises at Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck.
Sellinger credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives for the investigation leading to the verdict and sentence, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Vera Varshavsky of his Criminal Division and Bruce P. Keller, who serves as Sellinger's special counsel.
The U.S. attorney also thanked:
- Hazelton City, PA police, the Luzerne County, PA District Attorney’s Office, the Pennsylvania State Police;
- New Jersey State Police; the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office, the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office;
- the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Department and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“All of the federal, state and local law enforcement agencies that worked on finding, capturing and prosecuting [Figueroa] did outstanding work in this case,” Sellinger said.
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