MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2005
D.A. BROWN: QUEENS MAN SENTENCED TO
ELEVEN YEARS IN PRISON FOR VICIOUS ASSAULT AND IMPRISONMENT OF THIRD WIFE
Sentence to Be Served Consecutively to Seven Years for Assault on Second
Wife
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Far Rockaway, Queens, man has been sentenced to eleven years in prison for the March 2004 assault on his wife in which he beat her and set her afire.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant’s violent conduct during a domestic dispute left his wife burnt, bruised and emotionally scarred and clearly showed that he is a threat to public safety. A jury has held the defendant accountable for his crime and the court has now imposed its penalty of imprisonment. The prison term is more than warranted considering the terrible physical and emotional damage that the defendant inflicted.”
District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Alaa Agina, 43, of 1256 Central Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens, no known employment. The defendant was found guilty on November 1, 2004 of Attempted Assault in the First Degree, a class C-felony, Assault in the Second Degree and Unlawful Imprisonment in the First Degree after a two-week trial by a jury of five men and seven women that deliberated for one day before returning its verdict before Supreme Court Justice Ronald D. Hollie. The defendant was sentenced today to a determinate term of eleven years in prison to run consecutive to the seven years in prison that he is currently serving for a December 2002 assault on his second wife.
The District Attorney said that, according to the trial testimony between 5:00 p.m. on March 29 and 2:00 a.m. on March 30, 2004, the defendant attacked his wife, Sylvia Agina, 27, a college student, inside their residence at 1256 Central Avenue in Far Rockaway, Queens, and kept her against her will for 12 hours. During the ordeal, he forced her to remove all of her clothing, and then bound her, tied a cord around her neck and put a bag over her head, taping it closed, before repeatedly stomping and kicking her throughout her body. He also forced pills down her throat and poured alcohol and cooking oil on her breasts, which he then set on fire. The couple’s three-year-old daughter, Sabrina Agina, was inside the home at the time of the incident.
District Attorney Brown said that the defendant was apprehended by officers of the New York City Police Department’s 101 Precinct at a Far Rockaway, Queens supermarket four days after the incident occurred after his wife asked someone to notify the authorities.
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.