Particle.news
Download on the App Store

Rinnyers Pena Backs Out of Plea Mid-Hearing, Trial on Other Cases Set for Next Week

The scrapped deal offered credit for five years already served, likely resulting in release within months.

Overview

  • Pena reversed course mid-hearing Wednesday in Suffolk Superior Court, withdrawing a planned guilty plea and stunning Alenny Matos’ relatives.
  • The abandoned agreement would have counted roughly five years of time served and positioned him for release within months followed by probationary monitoring.
  • He remains in custody and now heads to a jury trial next week on two other cases, with potential life in prison if he is convicted.
  • In total, he faces 11 charges across three cases involving four alleged victims, including kidnapping, rape, assault, and photographing women while they were unconscious.
  • The count linked to Matos alleges disinterring or moving a body, not murder, and is not expected to go before a jury; her remains were found in May 2020 in a trash bag at Hyde Park’s Stony Brook Reservation.