TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2005

D.A. BROWN: NORTH CAROLINA MAN SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON FOR SHOOTING DEATH OF EX-GIRLFRIEND’S BOYFRIEND

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a Charlotte, North Carolina, man has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the January 2004 shooting death of his former girlfriend’s boyfriend that took place during a violent confrontation on the street outside of the defendant’s friend’s residence in South Ozone Park, Queens. After his arrest, the defendant met with an undercover officer whom he believed was a hitman and conspired to have his former girlfriend murdered.

District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant, who plead guilty last July, has now been punished for the senseless murder of his ex-girlfriend’s boyfriend. The defendant used an illegal weapon to settle a verbal dispute and now must accept the consequences of the lengthy prison sentence.”

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Jeffrey Mitchell, 47, of 2701 Milton Road in Charlotte, North Carolina, a building contractor. The defendant pled guilty on July 15, 2005, to Manslaughter in the First Degree and Conspiracy in the Second Degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Randall T. Eng who imposed today’s sentence of 25 years in prison and eight and one-third to 25 years in prison, respectively. The sentences are to be served concurrently.

District Attorney Brown said that the defendant admitted that after a heated argument on January 10, 2004, at approximately 9:00 a.m. on 130th Street and Liberty Avenue in South Ozone Park, Queens, he shot James Young, 44, once in the torso, fatally wounding him. The shooting took placed in the defendant’s mini-van. The defendant then fled with his five-year-old daughter, Destiny, who was also a passenger in the mini-van.

The NYPD issued an Amber alert which resulted in the arrest later that same evening at the West 4th Street subway station in Greenwich Village. A semi-automatic pistol was recovered on the defendant.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Debra Lynn Pomodore 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 S. Saunders.