A Roxbury woman will serve at least 15 months behind bars for lying to the Suffolk County Grand Jury as it investigated the 2007 shooting death of 13-year-old Luis Gerena, Jr., District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said today.

Conley’s office recommended that DESTINY GUNN (D.O.B. 9/2/89) serve five years in state prison following her Nov. 8 admission to the crime of perjury. Today, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Raymond Brassard sentenced her to two and a half years in a house of correction, with 15 months to serve up front and the balance suspended for a three-year probationary term.

If Gunn stays out of trouble upon her release, she will not have to serve any more time. If she reoffends, however, she could be ordered to serve out the remaining 15 months. At her attorney’s request, Brassard stayed the imposition of that sentence until Jan. 5.

“Destiny Gunn threw her future away to protect two men who killed a child,” Conley said. “The public needs to know that there are serious consequences here. If you lie to the grand jury, we’re going to indict you and we’re going to recommend prison time. Our ability to build and prosecute these cases depends on the truthfulness of our witnesses. We’ve made great use of witness protection funds to keep those men and women safe. That wasn’t the issue here. Destiny Gunn lied to protect two killers and she has to pay the price.”

Conley pointed to last year’s report on the state’s Witness Protection Program, which showed Suffolk County as leading the Commonwealth in efforts to relocate and protect witnesses to violent crime – and their family members. Conley’s office initiated just under half of the 167 witness protection petitions since the program began in 2006 through the report’s 2010 publication, and protected 221 of the 465 witnesses and family members assisted through the program during the same time period. The majority of those cases involved gang-related homicides like Gerena’s.

“She threw away that opportunity and chose instead to protect two killers,” Conley said.

In urging a prison sentence, Assistant District Attorney Dana Pierce of Conley’s Senior Trial Unit told the court that Gunn was provided an attorney and offered safety planning through the state’s Witness Protection Program before she testified in the grand jury, with the expectation that she would speak the truth about giving Gerena’s killers, NURUDEEN ALABI (D.O.B. 11/6/89) and DARRELL RODRIGUES (D.O.B. 5/24/90), a ride to the Jackson Square MBTA station on Jan. 12, 2007, and watching them threaten a second witness in her car five days later.

Instead, Pierce said, “She was sworn to tell the truth, and she lied and lied and lied. Her lies were bold, premeditated, and planned out.”

Those lies, Conley said, had a direct effect on prosecutors’ ability to try the defendants for Gerena’s murder. Ultimately, both pleaded guilty to manslaughter, with Alabi sentenced to 17 years and Rodriguez sentenced to 14 to 15 years.

“Had she just told the truth, we might have seen a very different outcome and Luis’ family might have found something closer to justice,” Conley said.

Katherine Moran was the DA’s assigned victim-witness advocate. Gunn was represented by attorney Charles Jordan.