Crime

Boston man backs out of plea deal over charges of assault, rape, and disinterring a body

Under the terms of the proposed plea deal, Rinnyers Pena could have been released from prison as soon as June.

April 30, 2026 | 12:34 PM

2 minutes to read

Expected to take a plea deal Wednesday, a Boston man instead abruptly reversed course and declined to plead guilty to disposing of a woman’s body in Hyde Park in 2020, among other charges.

Rinnyers Pena, 47, appeared to change his mind as prosecutors ran through the allegations against him during the hearing, per video from WBZ. According to the news outlet, the sudden reversal stunned relatives of Alenny Matos, 38, whose body was found inside a trash bag in the Stony Brook Reservation in May 2020.

Previously:

“My apologies to the court, my client does not wish to proceed with the change of plea,” Pena’s attorney, Paul Davenport, told the judge. Davenport did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.

In addition to the single count of disinterring Matos’s body, Pena is also embroiled in two unrelated cases involving charges of kidnapping, rape, domestic assault and battery, drugging a person for sexual intercourse, strangulation or suffocation, and photographing an unsuspecting person in the nude.

Under the terms of the proposed plea deal, Pena could have been released from prison as soon as June upon receiving credit for five years served, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office confirmed.

He is scheduled for a hearing May 6 to revisit his potential change of plea on the charge of disinterring a body, the DA’s office said. His trial on the two other cases will begin the same day.

Prosecutors said a woman walking her dog near Enneking Parkway in Hyde Park discovered Matos’s body on May 9, 2020 — months after the Dorchester resident was first reported missing. Matos’s remains allegedly tested positive for fentanyl, but a medical examiner was unable to determine her cause and manner of death, court filings state.

According to prosecutors, Pena and Matos exchanged phone calls and made plans to meet up early on Jan. 26, 2020. The next night, Pena’s cellphone data allegedly put him in the vicinity of Enneking Parkway.

Pena told investigators he had known Matos since they both lived in the Dominican Republic, and their relationship was strictly sexual, prosecutors alleged in court filings. He purportedly acknowledged meeting up with Matos on Jan. 26 but claimed he drove her home after they had sex.

Pena is also accused of kidnapping, raping, and assaulting another woman in one of his unrelated cases. Prosecutors say he photographed two other women naked while they were unconscious, allegedly raping one of them.

In a 2024 court filing, prosecutors further alleged that even before Matos died, Pena was connected to the overdose deaths of two other women. He has not been charged in connection with their deaths.