TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 2005

D.A. BROWN: TEEN GIRL PLEADS GUILTY TO STABBING ANOTHER TEENAGER DURING VIOLENT STREET DISPUTE IN FLUSHING, QUEENS
Faces 10 Years in Prison

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a 16-year-old girl has pleaded guilty in the fatal stabbing of a 15-year-old girl during a violent street dispute in Flushing, Queens, last October.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Tiffany Pelez, 16, of 149-29 35th Avenue in Flushing, Queens.

Pelez appeared today before Acting Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin Brandt and pleaded guilty to Manslaughter in the First Degree. Sentencing was adjourned until September 15, 2005, at which time Pelez is expected to be sentenced to ten years in state prison.

District Attorney Brown said, “A senseless act of violence tragically ended one young girl’s life as another used a knife to settle an argument. The defendant must now accept the consequences of her actions and the significant prison sentence she now faces as a result of that decision.”

According to District Attorney Brown, the fatal incident took place about 5:45 p.m. on October 11, 2004, in front of the Latimer Gardens public housing development at 34-45 Linden Place in Flushing, Queens.

The District Attorney said that, according to the charges filed in the case, the defendant, acting in concert with two others, Hannah Van Fleet and Raymond Almodovar, intentionally stabbed 15-year-old Frances Hynds once in the chest, fatally wounding her.

Hannah Van Fleet, 16, of 154-11 Ash Avenue, and Raymond Almodovar, 20, of 136-10 Latimer Place, both of Flushing, are charged with Manslaughter in the First Degree, Assault in the First Degree and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree and face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Their cases are presently pending.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer Naiburg, 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.