Crime
The man’s three-year sentence for disinterring the woman’s body will be served concurrently with his current prison term.
Rinnyers Pena, 47, pleaded guilty Thursday to disinterring the body of Alenny Matos, 38, in January 2020. Boston Police Department
A Boston man pleaded guilty Thursday to disinterring a body and was sentenced to three years in prison, prosecutors said.
Rinnyers Pena, 47, admitted guilt on one count of disinterring a human body in connection to the 2020 death of 38-year-old Alenny Matos, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said in a statement. He was previously expected to plead guilty in April but abruptly backed out at the last minute.
Pena is currently serving a prison sentence for convictions in a separate case, including rape, strangulation, drugging for sex, and photographing an unsuspecting nude person. He was found guilty May 15 and sentenced the following week to 17 to 20 years in state prison, according to prosecutors.
The added three-year sentence for the case of Matos’ death will be served concurrently. Following his prison sentence, Pena faces five years of probation with GPS monitoring and sex offender registration, the DA’s office said.
What happened to Matos’ body?
On Jan. 25, 2020, Matos planned to visit her sister but never arrived. When her sister didn’t hear from her for more than 24 hours, she contacted Boston police and requested a well-being check, prosecutors said.
Police launched a missing persons investigation Jan. 27 after they learned that Matos’ son also hadn’t heard from her, according to the DA’s office. More than three months later, a woman walking her dog found Matos’ body in a trash bag near the Enneking Parkway in Hyde Park.
Matos’ body, which had been “significantly affected by animal activity,” was taken to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and identified via dental records. Postmortem toxicology yielded positive tests for fentanyl, acetyl fentanyl, and mercury, according to prosecutors.
How was Pena involved in Matos’ death?
Investigators learned that Pena planned to pick Matos up at her home and bring her to his home Jan. 26. He called her three times between 12:36 a.m. and 1:13 a.m., with the call location data indicating that he traveled from his home to hers, the DA’s office said.
At the time of the third call, Matos called Pena’s phone, and it was the last time her phone made an outgoing call, according to prosecutors. About five minutes later, Pena’s work truck was observed on video driving onto his street and returning to his home.
During the next 14 hours, Pena’s phone remained within proximity of his home, according to the DA’s office. Between 1:54 a.m. and 5:46 a.m., Matos’ phone received 11 incoming calls, all of which were tracked to the cell tower closest to Pena’s home.
None of the calls were answered, and the 5:46 a.m. call was the last one Matos’ phone received, prosecutors said. The next night, between 2:15 a.m. and 2:17 a.m., Pena’s phone was within proximity of Enneking Parkway.
Additional cell phone data showed that three hours after Pena’s phone was at the parkway, it called a tow truck. At 6:15 a.m., his work truck was seen on video on the back of a tow bed turning onto his street, according to the DA’s office.
In the footage, Pena could be seen removing a bin from his work truck and rolling it down the sidewalk, according to prosecutors. Later on, Massachusetts State Police searched the truck using a human remains detection dog, who alerted them to the area behind the driver’s seat.
Matos’ family, including her mother and youngest sister, gave impact statements Thursday, the DA’s office said. Her sister said that, while her whole family was affected, “the person who this hurts the most is her son, who is left without a mom.”
“As we heard so clearly in the victim impact statements today, Alenny Matos was a much-loved mother, sister and daughter,” Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a statement. “Her death — especially combined with the callous disposal of her body by Rinnyers Pena — has given her family and all of those who knew and loved her eternal grief and sadness.”
Pena’s attorney, Paul Davenport, declined to comment on his plea and the outcome of the case.
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