PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — A Providence man will spend the rest of his life behind bars for shooting and killing another man in the city back in 2021.
Andrew Mangru, 23, was convicted in December of second-degree murder and other charges in the death of 23-year-old Andrei Bonilla. He was also found guilty of assaulting a woman who was with Bonilla at the time.
The judge on Friday ordered Mangru to serve two consecutive life sentences at the ACI, the office of Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha announced.
During the week-long trial, prosecutors proved that Mangru shot Bonilla several times through the window of his car while he and the female victim were outside her home on Harwol Court.
Bonilla drove off and soon crashed on Branch Avenue, where police found him dead. Mangru, who used to date the woman, brought her inside the home and physically assaulted her until other people intervened, prosecutors said.
Bonilla was recently honored during National Crime Victims’ Rights Week for his “many contributions to a mission of non-violence and his community during his life,” according to Neronha.
“To lose someone so young and full of promise, who advocated for non-violence and peace, is nothing short of a tragedy,” Neronha said. “Andrei’s legacy will long outlast the lengthy and deserved prison sentence imposed on the defendant.”
Mangru was identified as a suspect within days of the murder, then arrested less than two weeks later.
In addition to second-degree murder and domestic assault, he was also convicted of discharge of a firearm while committing a crime of violence resulting in death, carrying a pistol without a license, obstruction of justice, attempted solicitation, and attempt to violate a no-contact order.
