A New York man has been sentenced for killing a 17-year-old high school senior with a stray bullet while attempting to shoot someone else during a confrontation outside a Rochester home.
Michael Garcia, who was 18 at the time, opened fire on 36-year-old Michael Springs outside a residence on Alphonse Street on April 30, 2025, prosecutors said.
One of the bullets tore into the home and struck East High School senior Danyelisse Pabon-Cubero in the head. The teenager, who had nothing to do with the dispute and was not an intended target, was fatally wounded.
Garcia fled after the shooting but was apprehended a short time later in Brockport, roughly 20 miles west of Rochester.
Prosecutors said the deadly confrontation grew out of a dispute involving baby formula and the mother of Garcia’s best friend’s child.
“Danyelisse Pabon-Cubero was only 17 years old when she was killed by gunfire intended for someone else,” Assistant District Attorney Kenisha Flowers said in a statement released by the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.
“She never had the opportunity to graduate, build a career, or experience the future that was stolen from her.”
Flowers said Garcia’s decision to fire multiple rounds into an occupied home devastated Danyelisse’s family and left another victim with life-changing injuries.
Danyelisse’s relatives remembered her as an energetic and ambitious teenager with big plans for the future.
A GoFundMe created for the family described her as “full of life, energy, and dreams.” She hoped to become a firefighter and was reportedly preparing to begin training.
“She played every sport she could, and was a vibrant part of every dance and step team she joined,” the fundraiser stated. “She was ambitious, loyal, and truly one of a kind.”
Dasia Johnson, Danyelisse’s dance coach, said the sentence brought some measure of justice to a family facing an unimaginable loss.
“I’m just glad justice was served, at the end of the day,” Johnson told 13WHAM ABC. “I’m glad this family can have peace, although it’s going to be a long route from now. Just glad the system did something right today.”
