Wednesday, February 16, 2005
D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO TWENTY-NINE AND ONE-HALF YEARS IN PRISON FOR MANSLAUGHTER AND BURGLARY IN FATAL BEATING OF NEIGHBORHOOD GRANDMOTHER; DNA EVIDENCE LED TO HIS APPREHENSION AND GUILTY PLEA
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Queens man has been sentenced to twenty-nine and one-half years in prison for manslaughter in the December 2003 beating death during a burglary in Jamaica, Queens of a neighborhood grandmother.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant’s apprehension was a result of DNA evidence which was obtained at the crime scene. He has been held accountable for his violent and senseless crime. I hope that the family of the victim, Mrs. Irma Diaz, finds solace knowing that their loved one’s killer will be punished for his terrible crime by the long prison sentence that was imposed.”
District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as William Auffant, 43, of 90-38 170th Street in Jamaica, Queens. The defendant pled guilty on January 25, 2005 to Manslaughter in the First Degree and Attempted Burglary in the First Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice James McGuire who sentenced him earlier today to 29½ years in prison.
According to the District Attorney, the fatal beating took place on December 16, 2003 between 1 and 10 a.m. in the victim’s residence on 170th Street in Jamaica, Queens. The defendant demanded money from the victim, Irma Diaz, 69, -- a neighbor and friend of the defendant’s mother -- pushed her, hit her repeatedly in the head and held her down until she stopped moving, causing her death. The defendant admitted taking a radio, jewelry and money from the victim’s residence before fleeing.
According to District Attorney Brown, a DNA profile developed from a blood stain on a blanket inside the victim’s apartment was matched to the defendant’s DNA and led to his apprehension for the crime in May 2004.
The District Attorney said that the defendant was free on work release from state prison at the time of the killing and had pled guilty in that case to Burglary in the Third Degree on January 11, 2000. He was later sentenced to two and one-half years to five years in prison.
Assistant District Attorney Jack Warsawsky, Deputy Chief, of the District Attorney's Homicide Trials Bureau, with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Erin Zacher of the District Attorney's Homicide Investigations Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief and Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.