Wednesday, August 3, 2005

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

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for the December 2004 stabbing death of a construction worker during an armed invasion of a private home in South Ozone Park, Queens. The defendant also assaulted the victim’s 24-year-old son.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has admitted his guilt and has now been sentenced for his actions when he forcibly entered a private residence, fatally stabbed a father and beat the victim’s son who leaped from a sick bed to help his father fight off the assailant. The penalty of imprisonment 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 pled guilty to Manslaughter in the First Degree and Assault in the Second Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert C. Hanophy who today imposed a determinate sentence of 28 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant admitted that on December 1, 2004 inside 135-54 127th Street in South Ozone Park, Queens during the commission of a burglary and an attempted robbery he caused serious physical injury to the victim, Ignatius Beharry, 55, by stabbing him in the chest several times, causing his death. The defendant also admitted that he struck, Mark Beharry, 24, in the head with an imitation pistol, causing the victim to sustain physical injury.

Assistant District Attorney John W. Kosinski of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau prosecuted the case 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.