December 17, 1998

FLUSHING MAN CONVICTED OF MURDERING OPERATOR OF PROSTITUTION RING AND SEXUALLY ABUSING FEMALE EMPLOYEE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the conviction of a Flushing resident for the murder of the operator of a prostitution ring and for sexually abusing one of its female employees.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as David Collic, 37, of 142-09 Barclay Avenue, Flushing who was convicted after a two week jury trial before Supreme Court Justice Randall Eng. The defendant was found guilty of murder in the second degree and sexual abuse in the first degree. He will be sentenced on January 13, 1999 and faces up to life in prison.

According to trial testimony, the defendant worked for the victim, Teng Shih, as a security guard for his prostituion operation. On February 13, 1998 the defendant and the victim were at the victim's apartment where a verbal argument between the two escalated into a physical altercation. The deceased attempted to flee the apartment with the defendant in pursuit. An eyewitness saw the defendant proceed to beat the victim severely about the head with a baton as the deceased tried to enter the building's elevator. The two struggled inside the elevator and the defendant then took a knife and plunged it into the victim's neck, severing his carotid artery. As the defendant dragged the victim back to the apartment he was observed by the female victim who was emerging from a bedroom in the apartment. The defendant assaulted the female victim and proceeded to rape and sodomize her. During the attack, police, alerted by neighbors, arrived on the scene and chased the defendant, apprehending him outside the building.

Assistant District Attorney Denise Tirino of the District Attorney's Special Victims Bureau, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Marjorie D. Fisher, was assisted in the trial prosecution by Assistant District Attorney Mitchell B. Weiss of District Attorney Brown's Appeals Bureau under the supervision of Bureau Chief John M. Castellano.