Wednesday, January 19, 2005

D.A. BROWN: NYC HRA SOCIAL WORKER SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN PRISON FOR SHOOTING DEATH OF CO-WORKER

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a social worker employed by the New York City Human Resources Administration has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for the intentional shooting death of a co-worker whose body was found in the basement of her Queens Village residence.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant took the life of another person using an illegal handgun. The lenghty prison sentence imposed by the court is just punishment.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Lorna Laidlaw, 42, of 94-14 212th Street in Queens Village, a social worker for the New York City Human Resources Administration, who pled guilty on December 13, 2004, to Manslaughter in the First Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt who imposed today’s determinate sentence of 20 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant admitted that she shot to death Jose Hernandez, 58, inside her home at 94-14 212th Street in Queens Village. The victim’s body was found on May 18, 2004 concealed in a black garbage bag wrapped in tape in a basement storage compartment at the victim’s residence. An autopsy by the medical examiner determined that the victim had died as the result of multiple gun shot wounds to his head, left arm and right cheek.

The investigation was conducted by Detective James O’Boyle of the New York City Police Department’s 105th Precinct Detective Unit in Queens Village Squad under the supervision of Lieutenant Michael Miltenberg and Sergeant Shane Markey.

Assistant District Attorneys Jennifer L. Naiburg of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau and Nathalie Bell of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jack Warsawsky, Deputy Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau and Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief of the District Attorney’s Homicide Investigations Bureau and Peter J. McCormack, III, Deputy Chief and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A Saunders.