- After years in a violent relationship, New York mum Angela Valle tried to leave her controlling boyfriend, Jerry Brown.
- When she invited her childhood best friend Savannah Rivera for a sleepover, Jerry burst in with an axe, brutally attacking both women.
- Angela miraculously survived with life-threatening injuries, but Savannah and her unborn baby tragically died. Jerry was later jailed for life.
Taking a bite of pizza, Angela Valle, then 21, smiled.
She’d missed her best friend, Savannah Rivera. The pair had been inseparable since childhood, but over time, they’d drifted apart.
Four years earlier, aged 17, Angela and her then-boyfriend had become parents of a daughter they named Aliana. But their relationship broke down, and they split.
Without her support network, Angela moved back in with her mum, Jessica Cruz.
It was there she met Jerry Brown, then 34, who lived in the same apartment block.
Bonding over a shared love of scary movies, Angela and Jerry’s relationship blossomed.
For a while, Angela felt happy. But before long, Jerry’s true colours started to shine through.
He became angry and controlling, and would question Angela’s every move, where she went and who she was seeing.
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He even stole her keys at one point to prevent her from leaving.
In time, he also became physically violent. In February 2019, he held her hostage, stabbing her in the back of the neck when her mother wasn’t home.
Angela was too afraid to report Jerry to the police in fear of how he’d retaliate.
Things finally came to a head when Jerry threatened to burn the apartment down, even going as far as barricading the door with the fridge and turning on the gas stove.
Angela decided she’d finally had enough. She could no longer put her mum and daughter in danger by staying with Jerry out of fear.
But Jerry wasn’t having it. ‘If you’re not going to be with me, you’re not going to be with anyone,’ he threatened.
Stabbing her in the back of the neck
In April 2019, amid the chaos of her tumultuous relationship, Angela reconnected with her childhood bestie, Savannah, who was nine weeks pregnant.
Wanting to make up for lost time, Angela invited her mate for a sleepover, where the friends ate pizza and took Aliana to the playground.
But Jerry couldn’t stay away and, hoping to keep the peace, Angela allowed him to join them.
That night, after putting Aliana to bed in the back room, the trio chatted and watched TV.
But at around 1.30am, when Jerry appeared in the lounge room wielding an axe, Angela was terrified.
Ordering the women to sit on the floor, with their heads tilted back against the seat of the sofa, exposing their necks, Jerry swayed the axe back and forth menacingly.
Despite the desperate women’s pleas, Jerry had made his mind up.
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‘You are not getting out of this,’ he spat.
This is it. We’re about to die, Angela realised, squeezing her eyes shut as the axe came down, hacking the women.
When her eyes flickered open again, she was met with an unimaginable sight. Savannah had been almost decapitated, and several of her fingers had been severed too.
Bleeding profusely from lacerations to the back of her head, her neck, chest, and arm, Angela knew she needed to get help.
Staggering down eight flights of stairs and out onto the road, she managed to flag down an Uber driver who was stopped at the nearby traffic lights.
The man took one look at Angela, her body covered in deep slash marks, and called police, staying with her until they arrived.
Police stormed upstairs, but Jerry was nowhere to be found. Thankfully, Aliana was unharmed.
Outside police found a blood-smeared axe in the building’s incinerator.
Angela was transferred to hospital with a fractured skull, multiple stab wounds, collapsed lungs and broken ribs, and placed in a coma.
Despite attempts to revive Savannah, tragically she died, along with her unborn child.
Later that day, Jerry spoke to a local TV station, claiming that he had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and couldn’t remember attacking anyone.
But that afternoon, he drove himself to the police station.
Police found a blood-smeared axe
It turned out Jerry Brown had criminal past, and had served time for attempted murder, aged just 17.
Police charged Brown with murder, attempted murder, assault and weapons charges.
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Meanwhile, after being revived twice, Angela was lucky to be alive.
A metal plate placed in her brain became infected, resulting in her wearing a helmet whenever she went out.
She also sustained a nervous system injury that caused damage to the sight in her left eye and left her with seizures.
With the support of her mum, and her ex-partner, Aliana’s father, Angela survived.
In June 2024, Jerry Brown, 39, was convicted of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, and first-degree assault.
Two months later in Brooklyn Supreme Court he was sentenced to 25 years to life.
Prosecutor Eric Gonzalez said, ‘This was a shocking and senseless act of violence that took the life of a pregnant woman and left a second woman with physical and emotional traumas.’
Speaking to the New York Post, Angela said how she’s haunted by the attack and plagued by guilt about Savannah’s tragic death.
‘I love her, and I miss her,’ she said.
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