18 YEAR OLD FOUND GUILTY IN 1999 CHINESE FOOD DELIVERYMAN MURDER; FACES PRISON TERM OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS TO LIFE

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a jury has found a Queens man guilty of the 1999 murder of a 52 year old Chinese food deliveryman in Hollis.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Rami Merchant, 18, of 100-22 197th Street, Hollis. He was convicted of Murder in the Second Degree and is to be sentenced on February 20, 2002 before Supreme Court Justice Stanley Katz. The defendant faces a possible prison term of 25 years to life.

District Attorney Brown said, "This was a senseless murder of a man who worked hard to support his family. There can be no justification for the defendant's actions."

According to the charges, on June 23, 1999 the defendant and three others, including co-defendant Conrad Marhone, who is awaiting trial, called a neighborhood Chinese restaurant in Hollis and ordered a food delivery to an abandoned house on 195th Street. Shortly afterward, Ng Cheung Cheung, 52, arrived at the location. Cheung was handed $20 and then Marhone allegedly hit him in the head with a baseball bat. Merchant then grabbed the food and another accomplice, still being sought, grabbed the $20. All four fled.

Assistant District Attorney Michelle Goldstein of District Attorney Brown's Homicide Trials Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Daniel Saunders and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Gregory L. Lasak.