Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Illegal basement death scene

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced that a Bronx man has been convicted of fatally stabbing a 45-year-old Queens man twice in the chest following a dispute inside the victim’s Astoria apartment.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has been convicted of the stabbing death of an unarmed man after engaging in a dispute with the man in his own home. His actions will now result in his serving what will probably be the rest of his life behind bars.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Ricardo Garcia-Villegas, now 53, whose last known address was 2319 Hughes Avenue in the Bronx. The defendant was convicted of second-degree murder, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with evidence.

Queens Supreme Court Justice Darrell L. Gavrin, who presided at the one-week jury trial, set sentencing for March 24, 2008, at which time the defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that, according to testimony at trial, Garcia-Villegas attended a party in Queens on January 8, 2006, and spent the night in the basement apartment that his nephew, son-in-law and several other people, including the victim, Armando Perez, rented at 12-12 31st Avenue in Astoria. The following day, Perez called the police to report that someone had broken his bedroom door. Although no arrests were made, responding police notified the building’s landlord that the basement apartment was an illegal single room occupancy and that all the occupants would have to vacate the premises.

After police left, Garcia-Villegas was observed by his nephew, Luis Picazza, exiting Perez’s bedroom with a bloody kitchen knife in his hands and that Perez was laying on his bed with blood on his chest. Garcia-Villegas then closed the door, wiped the doorknob and placed a chair in front of it, telling his nephew, “that’s what he (Perez) gets for calling the police.” He told his nephew that if anyone asked, he did not see him (Garcia-Villegas).

Garcia-Villegas then washed the knife and placed it in the dish rack before leaving the apartment. The nephew notified his employer of what had transpired and the employer, in turn, called police.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yup, thats Astoria. The new Elmhurst.

Thanks Peter and Michael (and George, oh George, oh George)

Anonymous said...

I am going over to astorians.com and read the latest restaurant review.

Anonymous said...

Well....Astoria is not the only place that is becoming the new Elmhurst....

The immigrant population here is out of control.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe the police even notified the landlord. Usually they ignore all that kind of stuff.

Anonymous said...

Last week I rode the N to Astoria Blvd. The landscape does not look much different than Elmhurst and Corona. Let's hope that plague will stop before reaching Middle Village.

Anonymous said...

How nice to finally find this online. I was on jury selection for this trial and not having made it to see what actaully happened at trial, it fills in a lot of blanks of what they won't tell you until you are actaully selected for the jury.