March 2, 1999

FUGITIVE FROM DOMINICAN REPUBLIC CONVICTED IN 1993 GROCERY STORE MANAGER'S MURDER

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today the conviction of a 26 year old fugitive who avoided apprehension for four years by fleeing to the Dominican Republic the day after he murdered a grocery store manager and shot two of the store's clerks in a July 1993 robbery. Two additional defendants were convicted previously for their roles in the crimes.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Oscar Fernandez, 26, formerly of Queens. He was convicted of murder, attempted murder, attempted robbery and criminal possession of a weapon after a 2½ week trial before Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy. Justice Hanophy will impose sentence on March 22. The defendant faces life imprisonment with a possible minimum term of 50 years. The defendants accomplices, Franklin Reyes, 28, of 57-32 Van Doren Street, Corona and Eddie Guzman, 25, of 34-23 96th Street were convicted in 1994. Franklin Reyes is now serving 50 years to life in prison and Eddie Guzman is serving 15 years to life for the crime.

According to the testimony at trial, on July 24, 1993, the three men decided to rob the Mini-Mart grocery store at 64-15 108th Street. The defendant Reyes, the mastermind of the robbery, was the driver of the getaway car and the defendants Fernandez and Guzman went into the store. The defendant Guzman went to the back of the store approached a clerk, Jesus Jimenez, who was behind the counter, and demanded money. Mr. Jimenez turned towards a closet where a cash box was kept when the defendant fired at him and at his cousin Fernando Jimenez who was standing nearby. The defendants then fled the store and on their way out, the testimony showed, she shot and killed and Mr. George Poulopoulos, the store manager.

District Attorney Brown said, "Mr. Poulopoulos was shot and killed for no reason. He posed no threat to the defendants. They were retreating from the robbery and, almost as an after thought, deprived this good man of his life."

The defendant was arrested on August 7, 1997 at JFK International Airport after he returned from the Dominican Republic where he had fled the day after the murder.

Executive Assistant District Attorney Sheldon I. Galfunt, a senior member of the District Attorney's staff prosecuted the cases.

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