A New York City judge sentenced a man to 22 years-to-life in prison Wednesday for the ruthless rape and murder of a Chinese woman in the city's borough of Queens last year.

Mexican-American deliveryman Carlos Salazar Cruz, 29, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder of 23 year-old Chinese woman Yao Yu. On May 16, 2010, Cruz kidnapped Yao while she was on her way home from a grocery store in the Queens neighborhood of Flushing. He then dragged her into an alley, raped her and hit her in the head repeatedly with a metal pipe. Yao died several days later at New York Queens Hospital.

Yao came to the United States two months before her murder, and had been working at a nail salon to save money for law school.

Before reading the sentence, Queens Supreme Court justice Richard Buchter said he would have sentenced Cruz to the death penalty if the law allowed it. Under the sentence, Cruz will serve a minimum of 22 years in prison before he is eligible for parole.

"Nothing can replace the pain of losing a daughter," Buchter said prior to the sentencing.

Yao's mother Yu Guihua reportedly collapsed in the Queens courtroom upon seeing her daughter's murderer. Reading a statement to the court with a broken accent and tears streaming down her face, Yu called for a severe punishment for Salazar, saying loss of her daughter was like being sentenced to death. Following the brief testimony, she walked out of the courtroom in silence.

The brutality and senselessness of the crime, as well as the alleged indifference of witnesses who saw the act has made a profound impact on the neighborhood. After the tragedy, a mutual aid team for safety was established by the local Chinese community. Around 600 Chinese people in New York have joined the team.

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