ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The man who killed 16-year-old Jakarah Lopez-Moore last August will be behind bars for 20 years.

Reign Tapiato, 28, was sentenced over a year after the killing by NYS Supreme Court Justice Moran after pleading guilty in September.

Lopez-Moore was reported missing on August 27, 2023. On October 14, people fishing found her body in the woods near the Erie Canal behind Vanguard Parkway.

Police believed she was killed the night she went missing. Tapiatio was identified as a suspect in the killing in February of this year. Police say they knew each other, and it wasn’t a random act of violence.

“Jakarah Lopez-Moore had her entire life ahead of her before Reign Tapiato violently stripped that life away from her friends and family,” said Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley. “Reign Tapiato killed teenage Jakarah Lopez-Moore and allowed her family to frantically look for her for months, suffering and wondering if she was alive. We hope that Reign Tapiato will use his time in the Department of Corrections to reflect on his violent actions that took a life and ruined a family. It is our hope that Jakarah Lopez-Moore’s loved ones can find justice in today’s sentence.”

Monday, the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office said Tapiato shot Lopez-Moore in a wooded area in Rochester on the night she went missing. Tapiato did not reference Lopez-Moore during his statement in court.

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