{"id":149270,"date":"2026-03-01T23:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149270\/"},"modified":"2026-03-01T23:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T23:14:09","slug":"family-praises-bronx-teen-wounded-trying-to-save-mom-from-being-stabbed-to-death-by-boyfriend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/149270\/","title":{"rendered":"Family praises Bronx teen wounded trying to save mom from being stabbed to death by boyfriend"},"content":{"rendered":"

A brave Bronx teenager tried to save his mom from being stabbed to death by her longtime boyfriend<\/a> \u2014 and was badly wounded himself in the clash, prosecutors and the victim\u2019s shaken family said Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 16-year-old son of slaying<\/a> victim Yesenia Hall heard his mom\u2019s 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\u2019s bedroom, knife in hand, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess he was trying to blanket his mom \u2014 that\u2019s why he received the stabbings himself,\u201d said Hall\u2019s brother Edwin Maldonado, 50, a commercial airline pilot and retired Army officer. \u201cHe was trying to save his mom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Yesenia<\/p>\n

Courtesy of family<\/p>\n

Yesenia Hall (Courtesy of family)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The wound to his neck has left the boy temporarily unable to speak, his family said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to get to live,\u201d Maldonado said. \u201cThank God he is out of surgery. He is in stable condition. He is not talking. He just writes right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s adult daughter called 911, but Rivas ran off, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was completely in shock of what she was seeing happen in front of her,\u201d Maldonado said of his niece. \u201cShe couldn\u2019t sleep because it\u2019s vivid to her. What she saw was vivid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hall\u2019s 12-year-old son was also present for the bloodbath, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWitnessing my mother and brother get hurt like that is extremely heartbreaking,\u201d Halls\u2019 daughter wrote on Instagram. \u201cI can\u2019t stop replaying it over and over again. I miss you momma and I hope you\u2019re watching over us. I know you were so scared.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Police investigate inside the apartment building on Sherman Ave. near E. 163rd St. in the Bronx on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

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

Rivas resurfaced hours later at a local hospital seeking treatment for his own wounds, prosecutors said.<\/p>\n

Rivas\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

Judge Yadhira Gonzalez-Taylor ordered him held without bail.<\/p>\n

\"Juan<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Juan Rivas is arraigned at Bronx Criminal Court on Sunday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Rivas has six prior arrests in total over the past 10 years, mostly on assault charges, police said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know she has received multiple previous injuries from him,\u201d Maldonado said. \u201cThe guy is not good and he had a record before, and we have tried so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI know the city can only do so much when it becomes domestic,\u201d he added. \u201cThere have been multiple distresses. \u2026 The list is long, God mercy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighbors of the victim said they witnessed signs of trouble.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was crazy,\u201d one neighbor, who didn\u2019t give his name, said of Rivas. \u201cHe was aggressive. Possessive. Jealous. He was everything in the book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another neighbor, Shantrice Diamond, 17, said that Rivas and Hall seemed like the \u201cperfect couple\u201d in public but behind closed doors, she\u2019d hear him scream at her. \u201cHe was saying, like, \u2018I will strangle you, I will beat you up.\u2019 Stuff like that,\u201d she recounted.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard them fight like two or three times,\u201d Diamond said. \u201cI really thought it did calm down. They were doing good. They would blast music together \u2026 until recently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maldonado said the victim tried to do good by the suspect.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy sister tried to get him to go to therapy and get some help and clean him up,\u201d he said. \u201cI was going to help him. He was a licensed airplane mechanic, but since he had [crime] records, he couldn\u2019t have a real job, so for years now he hasn\u2019t had a job.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard when they had fights, and I\u2019ve seen them have fights in front of me before,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\"Police<\/p>\n

Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News<\/p>\n

Police investigate at the apartment building on Sherman Ave. near E. 163rd St. in the Bronx on Saturday. (Theodore Parisienne \/ New York Daily News)<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

\u201cShe had a certification as a medical biller,\u201d her brother said. \u201cShe was going to start working as a medical biller while she was trying to finish her degree.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s really about her kids, no matter what,\u201d he added. \u201cThe kids are grade A students. \u2026 That\u2019s accredited to the mom being on top of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 32-year-old cousin of Hall described her as \u201cloved beyond comparison by the folks around her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever she came in contact with would be changed for the better,\u201d the cousin said. \u201cShe was the girl would defend anybody from a bully on the block. \u2026 She was the first one to spring into action if she saw some kind of injustice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe was very jolly, she was very funny,\u201d he added. \u201cIf 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rivas\u2019 hours on the run left family members frightened, and they posted homemade wanted posters with his photo online as they awaited his arrest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was almost like a spring to action. We all wanted justice,\u201d the cousin said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cousin is most worried about the victim\u2019s three children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are now three children, one of them wounded in the neck,\u201d he said. \u201cFor what? It\u2019s a rough time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Roni Jacobson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A brave Bronx teenager tried to save his mom from being stabbed to death by her longtime boyfriend…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,262,263,266,85,267,9,24,264,12,63,261,265,129,131,130],"class_list":{"0":"post-149270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-city","10":"tag-county","11":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","12":"tag-latest-headlines","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-new-york","15":"tag-new-york-city","16":"tag-new-york-county","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-nyc","19":"tag-nyc-crime","20":"tag-sub-county-region","21":"tag-the-bronx","22":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","23":"tag-the-bronx-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}