TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2005
D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN CONVICTED OF
KNIFE ASSAULT AND ROBBERY
Faces Up to 25 Years in Prison
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown today announced that a knife-wielding Ozone Park man has been convicted after a jury trial of assaulting a 43-year-old City employee during a January 18, 2004, street robbery.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has been found guilty of violently attacking the victim with a knife during a robbery, repeatedly stabbing him about the face and hands and continuing to do so even after the victim attempted to flee and was lying helpless on the ground. Justice has been done and the defendant will now be held accountable for his actions.”
District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Guy Morinville, 21, of 85-44 88th Street in Ozone Park, Queens. The defendant was found guilty last night of Robbery in the First and Second Degrees, Assault in the Second Degree, Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Fourth Degree, and Criminal Possession of Stolen Property in the Fifth Degree by a jury of five men and seven women who deliberated for three hours following a one-week trial before Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman. The defendant will be sentenced on October 12, 2005, and faces up to twenty-five years in prison.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, at about 5:48 a.m. on January 18, 2004, in front of 92-17 Jamaica Avenue in Woodhaven, the defendant approached the victim, a custodian for the City of New York, and demanded his property. When the victim refused, the defendant repeatedly stabbed the victim about the face, head and hands. At one point, when the victim attempted to flee but slipped on the sidewalk, the defendant continued to stab him. As a result, the victim required multiple stitches and surgical staples to close his wounds.
According to the District Attorney, the defendant was arrested shortly after the incident. Police recovered a bloody knife, as well as the victim’s wallet and address book, from the defendant’s pants.
Assistant District Attorney Brian K. O’Connor of the District Attorney's Kew Gardens II Trial Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Daniel M. Sullivan, Bureau Chief, Francesco Catarisano and Mark Osnowitz, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and the overall supervision of Senior Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials James C. Quinn and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials John H. Larsen.