White Plains, NY - The Westchester County District Attorney's office announced that Francisco Acevedo, 43, formerly of Mount Vernon, New York, was sentenced to three consecutive terms in state prison on his November 14th, 2011 conviction after a jury trial for three previously unsolved homicides that occurred in Westchester County twenty-two, twenty and fifteen years ago.

Acevedo was sentenced to twenty five years to life on his conviction of:

- one count of Murder in the Second Degree, relating to the killing of Kimberly Moore at the former Trade Winds Motel on Yonkers Avenue in Yonkers, New York, on May 24,1996;

and was sentenced to twenty five years to life on his conviction of:

- one count of Murder in the Second Degree, relating to the killing of Tawanda Hodges whose body was found at Federal Street, Yonkers, New York on March 28,1991;

and was sentenced to twenty five years to life on his conviction of:

one count of Murder in the Second Degree, relating to the killing of Maria Ramos whose body was found at Fernbrook Street, Yonkers, New York, on February 5,1989.

The sentences will be served consecutively with an aggregate minimum term of seventy five years to a maximum of life in state prison.

In 2002, a DNA profile was created and entered into CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System, which compares forensic DNA evidence from crime scenes.

The defendant had voluntarily given his DNA profile.

On November 6, 2009, the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research was notified of a DNA match.

The Yonkers Police Department’s Cold Case Unit and the Westchester County Department of Laboratories and Research worked the cases for years.

An indictment was unsealed on April 21, 2010, charging the defendant with the murders which were committed in similar fashion and involved the posing of the victim.

“This case clearly exemplifies the need for the expansion of New York State’s DNA data base to collect DNA from all convicted criminal defendants who are found guilty of any felony and of penal law misdemeanors. This defendant, a serial killer, was incarcerated on another charge and would never have been identified as the killer of these three women had he not voluntarily given a DNA sample so that he could be paroled,” said District Attorney Janet DiFiore after the defendant was sentenced. “The evidence based on that DNA testing allowed these three murder victims to directly point the finger of guilt at this defendant. “

Second Deputy District Attorney Patricia Murphy, Chief of the Superior Court Trial Division, and Timothy Ward, Chief of the Career Criminal Bureau, prosecuted the case.