Thursday, April 21, 2005

D.A. BROWN: BROOKLYN MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MANSLAUGHTER AND ASSAULT FOR 2004 HOME INVASION STABBING DEATH OF CONSTRUCTION WORKER AND BEATING OF SON IN SOUTH OZONE PARK, QUEENS; FACES 28 YEARS IN PRISON

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Brooklyn man has pled guilty to manslaughter and assault for the December 2004 stabbing death of a construction worker and beating of his son during an armed invasion of a private home in South Ozone Park, Queens.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted his guilt, waived his right to appeal and acknowledged that he forcibly entered a private residence, fatally stabbed a father and beat victim’s son who leaped from a sick bed to help his father fight off the assailant. The penalty of a long term of imprisonment to be imposed by the court is more than warranted.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Albert Massie, 39, of 30 Fleet Walk in Brooklyn who earlier today entered a plea of guilty to the offenses of Manslaughter in the First Degree and Assault in the Second Degree before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin Brandt who indicated that on May 18, 2005 she would impose a determinate sentence of 28 years in prison. The defendant admitted that he fatally stabbed the father and beat the victim’s son.

The District Attorney said that according to the criminal charges at about 10:35 a.m. on Wednesday, December 1, 2004 inside 135-54 127th Street in South Ozone Park, Queens the defendant intentionally stabbed Ignatius Beharry, 55, and beat Beharry’s son, Mark Beharry, 24, during a home invasion burglary at the family’s residence.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney John W. Kosinski of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jack Warsawsky, Deputy Bureau 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.