Tuesday, February 22, 2005

D.A. BROWN: STATE PRISON INMATE INDICTED FOR MURDER IN 2002 SHOOTING DEATH OF NYC DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION SUPERVISOR

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a state prison inmate has been indicted for murder and related charges in the shooting death in August 2002 during a robbery in Long Island City of a New York City Department of Environmental Protection Bureau of Water and Sewers nighttime supervisor.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant is alleged to have confronted the victim -- Eugene McMahon -- before dawn on a deserted street in an industrial section of Long Island City and to have shot him to death during a robbery. Mr. McMahon was a New York City DEP supervisor and a family man with a wife and three children whose lives were shattered by his violent and tragic death.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Taiquan Williams, 26, an inmate currently incarcerated at Coxsackie Correctional Facility in Coxsackie near Albany, New York. The defendant has been charged in a seven-count indictment with Murder in the Second Degree, Robbery in the First Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second and Third Degree and Tampering With Physical Evidence and faces up to 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

District Attorney Brown said that it is alleged that the defendant on August 9, 2002 about 5 a.m. at 40th Road near Northern Boulevard in Long Island City confronted the victim, who was seated in a parked DEP vehicle, shot him once in the head, causing his death, and robbed him, taking the victim’s cell phone and wallet.

The District Attorney said that the defendant is serving a sentence of one year to three years in prison for Attempted Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Third Degree.

The District Attorney said the defendant is expected to be arraigned on the charges in Queens Supreme Court later this week.

District Attorney Brown commended New York City Police Department detectives of the 114th Precinct and Queens Homicide for their excellent investigative work. The District Attorney said, “The outstanding investigative work by the NYPD detectives assigned to the case who developed the evidence needed to identify the defendant and sustain the charges upholds the proud tradition of NYPD detectives as the finest in the world.”

The investigation was conducted by Detective Cary O’Connor of the New York City Police Department’s 114th Precinct Detective Squad under the supervision of Lieutenant Stephen Borchers, Squad Commander, and Sergeant Brian Conlon of Queens Homicide under the supervision of now retired Assistant Chief Charles F. Gunther, Jr. and the overall supervision of Chief of Detectives George F. Brown.

Assistant District Attorneys Barry S. Weinrib of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau and David H. Chiang of the Homicide Investigations Bureau are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Jack Warsawsky, Deputy Bureau Chief, Homicide Trials Bureau and Peter T. Reese, Bureau Chief, Peter J. McCormack III, Deputy Bureau Chief, Homicide Investigations Bureau 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.

It should be noted that an indictment is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.