FLUSHING MAN CONVICTED OF 1999 EXECUTION-STYLE MURDER

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced the conviction of a Flushing man of intentional murder for the July 1999 execution-style shooting of another Flushing man whom he believed had stolen $40,000 and 200 pounds of marihuana from him.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Edward Paixao, 45, of 61-28 160th Street, Flushing. He was convicted of Murder in the Second Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree. A jury of three men and nine women, after a three-week trial, deliberated just four hours before returning a verdict of guilty before Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman. The defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison at his sentencing on January 14, 2002.

District Attorney Brown said, "The defendant literally executed his victim, shooting him four times -- once at close range in the back of the head and then three additional times in the neck. This was a cold, calculated and pre-meditated crime which warrants the maximum punishment allowed by law."

According to trial testimony, on July 9, 1999 at 164th Street and Depot Road in Flushing, the defendant used a .25-caliber handgun to fire four bullets into John McDonnell, 45, also a Flushing resident. McDonnell was standing in the street next to a parked Nissan Pathfinder talking with the SUV’s driver when the defendant sneaked behind him, shot him four times and then walked away. The defendant, it was testified, believed that in late 1998 McDonnell had stolen $40,000 in cash and 200 pounds of marihuana from him. In the months leading up to the fatal shooting, the defendant left voice mail messages on the victim’s home telephone in which he threatened to kill him. The tapes were played in court for the jury.

The day after the killing Paixao left New York City to vacation upstate. Three days later he learned that he was being sought by police for McDonnell’s murder and fled to Pennsylvania. Police tracked him to Williamsport where he was arrested on July 17, 1999. He was then extradited to New York and held without bail to await trial.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Debra Pomodore of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Daniel A. Saunders and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Gregory L. Lasak, prosecuted the case.