December 19, 1998

JURY DECIDES TO IMPOSE SENTENCE OF LIFE WITHOUT PAROLE IN CASE OF JAMES ALLEN GORDON PREVIOUSLY FOUND GUILTY OF FIRST-DEGREE MURDER IN BRUTAL SLAYING OF THREE WOMEN AND ATTEMPTED MURDER OF TWO OTHERS

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that the jury which convicted James Allen Gordon of first-degree murder charges has decided to sentence him to life without parole for the murder of three women during the summer of 1996.

District Attorney Brown said, "I am certain that the jury's decision that the defendant spend the rest of his life in prison without any possibility of parole rather than to impose the death penalty was made after much deliberation and soul searching. I accept the jury's decision."

District Attorney Brown said that Gordon, of 105-14 177th St., Jamaica, was found guilty on December 3, 1998 after a 13 week jury trial presided over by Supreme Court Justice Thomas A. Demakos of having murdered Darlene Johnson, 28, Hadiyah Holliman, 18, and Mary Mouzon, 33. Ms. Johnson and Ms. Mouzon were residents of a building at 106-03 177th St. where the murders occurred. Ms. Holliman lived in Brooklyn and was visiting Ms. Mouzon at the time of the murders. The surviving women are 20 and 21 years old respectively.

According to the trial testimony, during the early morning hours of July 10, 1996, the defendant entered the building at 106-03 177th St. and went to Ms. Johnson's first-floor apartment where he raped and sodomized her and then shot her in the head. He then went to Ms. Mouzon's second-floor apartment where she, Ms. Holliman and the two surviving women were and, at gunpoint, demanded property from Ms. Mouzon and the other victims. He then shot Ms. Holliman in the head and then repeatedly threatened the others and forced them to disrobe. He then attempted to sexually abuse and torture Ms. Mouzon and ultimately caused her death be beating, stabbing and cutting her and shooting her in the mouth. Thereafter, it was testified, the defendant struck one of the surviving women repeatedly int he head with a hammer and attempted to strangle the second survivor who managed to escape from a second-floor window and alert police.

The defendant was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee on August 20, 1996 after a nationwide manhunt by detectives assigned to the Queens Homicide Task Force and the 103rd Precinct Detective Unit.

District Attorney Brown said, "The guilty verdict rendered by the jury in the capital prosecution of James Allen Gordon was more than justified. The evidence of the defendant's guilt, presented at trial was clearly overwhelming.

I want to commend the prosecution team -- Assistant District Attorneys James C. Quinn, Charles A. Testagrossa and Gary S. Fidel -- for their professionalism in the handling of this most difficult case."

Justice Demakos has set January 28 for the imposition sentence.