Press Releases
QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO 22 YEARS FOR FATAL SHOOTING
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Tyseam McRae was sentenced to 22 years in prison for manslaughter, assault and robbery for three separate incidents, including the fatal shooting of an 18-year-old man in Rochdale in October 2019. District Attorney Katz said: “A violent, dangerous man is going to prison for a long time. The…
MAN INDICTED FOR KIDNAPPING, RAPING AND ASSAULTING THREE YOUNG WOMEN
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Andres Portilla was arraigned today on an indictment charging him with kidnapping and sexually assaulting three young women whom he kept captive in his car. District Attorney Katz said: “The brutality inflicted upon these vulnerable young women is unspeakable. This indictment is the first step toward providing some…
DEFENDANTS CHARGED WITH ANTI-ASIAN ATTACK IN CORONA
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Elijah Fernandez and Natalie Plaza are charged with assault as a hate crime for their alleged involvement in a hate-motivated assault in Corona on a woman and two men who attempted to stop the attack. District Attorney Katz said: “In the most diverse county in the country, perhaps…
QUEENS MAN INDICTED IN FATAL CAR CRASH
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Kassun Brown has been charged with manslaughter and drunk driving in connection with a fatal car crash in St. Albans. Brown is accused of speeding through a stop sign and hitting another vehicle, killing its driver, a police officer from the 63rd Precinct. District Attorney Katz said: “There…
DISTRICT ATTORNEY KATZ HOSTS 8TH ANNUAL MOCK TRIAL COMPETITION
The Queens District Attorney’s Office hosted its 8th Annual Mock Trial Competition over the weekend, with Rutgers School of Law defeating 15 other teams from top-tier, nationally ranked law schools. New York Supreme and Criminal Court judges presided as law school students competed before senior prosecutors and members of the defense bar. The event was…
NEW JERSEY MAN INDICTED FOR EXECUTION-STYLE MURDER
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Ron Reeder was indicted for an execution-style murder in broad daylight in September 2021. Wearing a mask and garments typically worn by Hasidic Jewish men, Reeder ran up behind the victim, who was entering a car parked on a South Ozone Park street, and shot him in the…
PIONEERING USE OF STATUTE RESTORES HOME TO DEED FRAUD VICTIMS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that a house in St. Albans was returned to its rightful owners, a disabled veteran and his family, through the first-ever use of a state law enacted to protect deed fraud victims. District Attorney Katz said: “This is the first time the law has been applied in New York…
QUEENS MAN CHARGED WITH POSSESSING ARSENAL OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Grzegorz Blachowicz was charged with criminal possession of weapons after search warrants executed at his home and a storage unit uncovered an arsenal of firearms and ammunition. District Attorney Katz said: “Ghost gun trafficking is a developing cottage industry that threatens to make an already pervasive gun violence…
HOUSECLEANING COMPANY AND CEO PLEAD GUILTY IN WAGE THEFT CASE
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, joined by New York State Labor Commissioner Roberta Reardon, announced that the MPStar Pros housecleaning company and its chief executive officer pleaded guilty to charges stemming from stealing wages from employees. The company advertised for apartment cleaners, hired them, allowed them to clean and then did not pay for their…
DEFENDANT PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER IN DEADLY SHOOTING OF ELMONT MAN
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Edson Giron Figueroa pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2021 shooting death of a 25-year-old Elmont man in Jamaica, Queens. District Attorney Katz said: “By pleading guilty, the defendant admitted responsibility for ending a man’s life during a craven robbery attempt. I hope this resolution brings closure for…
QUEENS MAN CHARGED WITH CRUELTY TO ANIMALS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Paul Verite has been charged with aggravated cruelty to animals and other crimes for allegedly repeatedly injuring his 10-week-old female Boston Terrier to the point the puppy could neither walk nor stand. A necropsy and review of medical records revealed that the puppy, named Espy, suffered excruciating pain…
MAN CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER IN QUEENS DELI SHOOTING
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Donnie Hudson has been charged with attempted murder, assault and other crimes in connection with yesterday’s shooting in a South Ozone Park deli. District Attorney Katz said: “This was a brutal, calculated assault using battlefield weaponry. Under absolutely no circumstances are we going to stand for turning our…
DEFENDANT SENTENCED TO 19 YEARS FOR DEATH OF PEDESTRIAN AND OTHER CRIMES
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Nigel Covington was sentenced to 19 years in prison for the death of a pedestrian struck by a stolen car he was driving before leaping out to evade police, and for driving into another woman, then beating her and stealing her purse. The incidents occurred November and December…
DISTRICT ATTORNEY KATZ APPEALS TO PUBLIC FOR INFORMATION ABOUT SHOOTING DEATHS OF BROTHERS
Brothers Shawn and Neshawn Plummer were gunned down three years and a few blocks apart in Far Rockaway, the innocent, unintended victims of the gun violence that is a national plague. On July 13, 2012, 18-year-old Shawn Plummer was hit by gunfire intended for someone else as he stood on Seagirt Avenue. Detectives found no…
23 REPUTED GANG MEMBERS CHARGED WITH CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER, ATTEMPTED MURDER, RECKLESS ENDANGERMENT AND GUN POSSESSION
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, joined by Mayor Eric Adams and NYPD Commissioner Keechant L. Sewell, announced that a two-year investigation into gang violence in and around two Queens public housing developments led to the indictments of 23 alleged members of warring subsets of the Crips street gang, one based in the Astoria Houses, the…
DEALER SENTENCED FOR SELLING DRUGS, LOADED FIREARM
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Renshan Lin was sentenced on February 7th to 7 ½ years in prison for selling narcotics and a loaded firearm to an undercover officer in 2021. On February 10th, the defendant received an additional 1 1/3 to 4 years in prison, to run concurrently, for possessing a loaded…
LAURELTON MAN INDICTED FOR CAUSING LIE CRASH THAT KILLED TOW OPERATOR
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Denzel Porter was indicted and arraigned today on charges of vehicular manslaughter, driving under the influence of alcohol and other crimes. The defendant allegedly caused a chain of collisions on the Long Island Expressway that resulted in the death of a tow operator and serious injury to a…
BROOKLYN WOMAN CONVICTED OF ATTEMPTED MURDER IN CHEESECAKE POISONING OF QUEENS LOOK-ALIKE
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Viktoria Nasyrova has been convicted by a jury of attempted murder and other charges for poisoning a Queens woman who resembled her with sedative-laced cheesecake and then stealing her identification and other property in August of 2016. District Attorney Katz said: “The jury saw through the deception and…
QUEENS MAN SENTENCED FOR SEXUALLY ABUSING WOMAN ON STREET
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Basam Syed was sentenced today to three years in prison after pleading guilty to persistent sexual abuse following charges of forcibly rubbing his genitals on a woman last summer. District Attorney Katz said: “The sentence punishes the defendant’s lewdness and should teach him that his disgusting behavior has…
QUEENS MAN SENTENCED FOR BURGLARY
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Marquis Silvers was sentenced to 2 years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted burglary. District Attorney Katz said: “I want to thank the Rockaway Nassau Safety Patrol for their help and relentless efforts in getting this defendant off the streets. My priority will always be to keep…