JUNE 23, 1998

THREE MEXICAN GANG MEMBERS CONVICTED OF GANG ASSAULT IN JACKSON HEIGHTS

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced the conviction of three members of a violent Mexican street gang for assaulting an 18-year-old Mexican youth in Jackson Heights last June.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendants; led by the defendant Samuel Galisia, 26, of 40-82 Elmhurst Avenue, were convicted of gang assault after a two-week trial before State Supreme Court Justice Jaime Antonio Rios. The defendant Galisia faces up to 25 years in prison and the two other defendants face up to 15 years in prison when they are sentenced on July 22nd.

District Attorney Brown said the defendants are members of Vatos Locos, a violent street gang active in Jackson Heights along Roosevelt Avenue. The crime occurred on June 24, 1997 at about 1 :00 in the afternoon on Roosevelt Avenue near the corner of Junction Boulevard.

According to the trial testimony, the 18-year-old victim was assaulted by 10-15 members of the gang after he crossed Roosevelt Avenue heading for a clothing store on the Avenue's north side. The gang approached and chased the victim brandishing golf clubs, baseball bats and screwdrivers with which they beat him. The victim sustained a puncture wound to the back and severe lacerations and contusions to the back. Shopowners along the Avenue summoned police who arrested the defendants about an hour later in a nearby park.

District Attorney Brown said, "This was an apparently unprovoked and vicious assault on a lone teenager in the middle of the afternoon on a busy thoroughfare. The principal defendant was convicted of first-degree gang assault and his cohorts were convicted of second-degree gang assault, two relatively new statutes aimed at this type of violent behavior. The motive for the assault is still unknown."

The two defendants convicted of Gang Assault in the Second Degree are: Juan Flores, 32, of 40-82 Denman Street, and Lazaro Sanchez, 26, of 37-28 91st Street.

Assistant District Attorney Barry Pinto of District Attorney Brown's Anti-Bias/Youth Gangs Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Mariela P. Stanton and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials James Clark Quinn, was the trial prosecutor.