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Man, 20, Sentenced in Death of Teen on Rockville Centre Footbridge

Lauren Daverin
Prosecutors said Lauren Daverin was killed by a former Long Beach man in Rockville Centre in August 2013.

A 20-year-old former Long Beach native who admitted in April to strangling and killing a teenager on a Rockville Centre footbridge in 2013 was sentenced Thursday to a lengthy prison term.

Acting Nassau County Supreme Court Justice Meryl Berkowitz sentenced Maxwell Sherman to 18 years to life in prison. Sherman’s sentencing follows an April guilty plea to second-degree murder.

Prosecutors said Sherman, who returned to Long Island and lived with his parents after leaving Long Beach, had strangled and struck 18-year-old Lauren Daverin of Lynbrook in the head multiple times on the night of Aug. 22, 2013, killing her.

“Because of the cold-blooded brutality of this crime, it is just that Maxwell Sherman pay a heavy price for tragically and inexplicably cutting Lauren Daverin’s life short,” said acting Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas in a statement following his sentencing.

Daverin was killed after she had met friends on the Mill Pond footbridge at Merrick Road and Sunrise Highway, prosecutors said. Sherman was also present.

Witnesses told investigators that Sherman and Daverin remained on the footbridge as the rest of the group left. But the encounter turned deadly when Sherman killed Daverin by strangling and hitting her repeatedly on the head, prosecutors said.

Daverin’s friends returned to the bridge at 10 p.m., only to discover her lifeless body lying there, prompting them to call police. Sherman had already left by the time the group returned, prosecutors said.

One day after Daverin’s death, Sherman visited Village of Rockville Center police and stated that he had been assaulted by two people after he left the footbridge.

On Aug. 24, a witness told police that he had been riding his bike over the footbridge en route to the bank at around 9 p.m., when he saw Sherman on top of Daverin, prosecutors said.

By the time the witness returned to the footbridge, Sherman was gone but Daverin’s body was still there, he told police.

“It is my fervent hope that today’s sentence gives Lauren’s loved ones a small amount of closure and peace,” Singas said.