Tuesday, May 10, 2005
D.A. BROWN: MASPETH, QUEENS RESIDENT SENTENCED TO NINE YEARS IN PRISON FOR SHOOTING AND PARALYZING WIFE
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Maspeth, Queens resident has been sentenced to nine years in prison for the March 2004 shooting of his wife in their home that left her paralyzed from the waist down.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant’s violent and mindless conduct during a domestic dispute left his wife paralyzed and unable to walk and clearly showed that he is a threat to public safety. The prison sentence imposed today by the court is more than warranted in that it protects society and punishes the defendant.”
District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Jimmy Vasquez, 37, of 60-24 54th Place in Maspeth, Queens, no occupation listed. The defendant plead guilty on April 1, 2005 to Attempted Assault in the First Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice William M. Erlbaum who imposed today’s determinate sentence of nine years in prison and also issued an order of protection directing the defendant to remain away from his wife and two children who are now in foster care.
According to the District Attorney, the criminal charges alleged that on March 23, 2004 at 7:11 p.m. inside his family’s residence at 60-24 54th Place in Maspeth, Queens, he argued with his wife, Jacqueline Vasquez, now 35, knocked her to the floor, shot her once in the back and fled. The defendant left his wife bleeding and paralyzed in the residence along with his children who are her stepchildren, a boy, James, seven, and a girl, Daysha Vasquez, eight.
District Attorney Brown said that the defendant was apprehended by police later the same day in Brooklyn at his father’s residence.
Assistant District Attorney Robert J. Ferino, Supervisor, of the District Attorney's Domestic Violence Bureau prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Scott E. Kessler, Bureau Chief, and Madeline Singas, Deputy Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.