Waldy Rodriguez lost her son to gun violence in 2014.
On Friday, she reached out to the mother of her son's killer.
Omar Curry, 27, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Friday in the Jan. 17, 2014, killing of Nelson Viera, 32.
In his plea, Curry said he was trying to scare Viera, who owed him money for drugs.
"He lunged toward me as I was firing the gun," defense attorney Jim Grimley read from the statement. "I wasn't trying to hit him, I was just trying to scare him off."
But that the victim was shot four times did not match that story, Assistant Prosecutor Edmund Burgos said. The state has alleged Curry set up Viera.
He pointed out that since his first juvenile conviction in 2006 until now, Curry spent just 12 months without being in custody of the justice system either through jail or probation.
Rodriguez told Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Waldman that she was destroyed by the death of her son.
She was just glad she had come up from her home in Florida to visit him the three months before his death.
Rodriguez said she went home Jan. 12, only to get the call two days later that her son had been killed.
Curry wasn't arrested until seven month later, days after his debut as a boxer.
"I didn't know I would be coming back to bury my son at 32," she cried.
On the other side of the courtroom, Curry's mother, Rayshell Curry, sobbed.
Earlier in the hearing, she tearfully apologized "that a family has to go through what they're going through at the hands of my son."
"I didn't raise a kid of the streets," Rayshell Curry said, explaining how she worked two jobs and tried to save her son when he turned to the streets.
"I hate the fact that a family is suffering, suffering behind my child," she said through sobs. "I pray that God has mercy on my son's soul."
Outside the courtroom, Curry reached out to Viera's family again, hugging several in the hallway and apologizing for their pain.
"I lost my son, but she lost her son as well," Rodriguez said.
