Archive for April 2025
HALF OF ‘BONNIE AND CLYDE’ MAIL THEFT TEAM SENTENCED TO 3 ½ to 7 YEARS IN PRISON FOR BURGLARY SPREE
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Brandon Sestoso was sentenced to 3 ½ to seven years in prison in connection with five residential apartment mailbox thefts between April and August 2024. Sestoso, allegedly accompanied by a female co-conspirator — leading the pair to be dubbed “Bonnie and Clyde” by members of law enforcement…
Read MoreDRUG DEALING OPERATION DISMANTLED IN JACKSON HEIGHTS
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced the indictment of nine individuals who were charged with selling and possessing controlled substances following a 17-month-long investigation into a drug peddling operation centered on 95th Street in Jackson Heights. Undercover investigators made 40 buys of cocaine, crack and fentanyl with a street value of more than $12,000. District…
Read MoreQUEENS MEN INDICTED FOR SEX TRAFFICKING, PROMOTING PROSTITUTION
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Xu Cheng Sun and Jingchao Zhang have been indicted by a grand jury on charges of sex trafficking, promoting prostitution and other crimes for trafficking a Chinese woman inside an East Flushing brothel. The woman arrived in the US from China in November and was taken to a…
Read MoreYour Weekly Update – April 11, 2025
Every April, we commemorate Crime Victims Rights Week. It is a time to acknowledge the struggles of crime victims and their families, and to acknowledge that survivors need both justice and support as they rebuild their lives after a traumatic incident… (continued)
Read MoreYour Weekly Update – April 4, 2025
A Queens squatter was sentenced to two years in prison recently for illegally occupying a single-family home in Flushing and renting out rooms to others in February 2024. The defendant forced himself into the house after the homeowner attempted to regain access, then falsely claimed that he was a legal tenant facing eviction and harassment. The incident…
Read MoreQUEENS MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO SEX TRAFFICKING TEENAGER AND WEAPONS CHARGES
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Troy Siddons pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and weapon possession charges for paying a 14-year-old for sex and later coercing her to engage in sex acts with paying customers to pay off a purported debt. The victim was held against her will and denied medical treatment for pain…
Read MoreTHREE CHARGED IN 2019 STABBING DEATH OF 17-YEAR-OLD IN SOUTH JAMAICA
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Tianna Benjamin, Charles Gillespie and Kyra Tyrell have been indicted by a grand jury and charged with murder, weapon possession and conspiracy in the November 2019 stabbing death of 17-year-old Talasia Cuffie. The victim attended a memorial basketball game being held in honor of Aamir Griffin, a…
Read MoreSUBWAY ATTACKER CONVICTED OF ROBBERY AND ASSAULT FOR HAMMER ATTACK ON WOMAN IN QUEENS PLAZA STATION IN 2022
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that William Blount has been convicted of robbery in the first degree, assault in the first degree and other crimes for brutally attacking a straphanger as she entered the Queens Plaza subway station in Long Island City in 2022. Blount approached the victim from behind, kicked her down the…
Read MoreSIBLING SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS TO LIFE IN PRISON FOR FATALLY STABBING BROTHER
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Henrry Gutierrez was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for fatally stabbing his 52-year-old brother in July 2022. The incident occurred during an argument inside a multi-unit Jamaica residence where the two men lived on separate floors. District Attorney Katz said: “This is an extraordinary family…
Read MoreQUEENS MAN FOUND GUILTY IN 2022 TRIPLE HOMICIDE STABBING DEATHS OF HIS GIRLFRIEND, HER SON AND A COUSIN
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Travis Blake was convicted at trial of murder in the first degree and other crimes for the vicious deaths of his girlfriend and two of her family members. The victims were found with an array of puncture and blunt force wounds and in a state of decomposition when…
Read MoreQUEENS DISTRICT ATTORNEY MELINDA KATZ SWEARS IN SIX NEW ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEYS
From left to right Maria Simonova, Jessica Laguerre, Laurane Fumex, the DA, Emily Jilson, Naomi-Beth Carter, and Elizabeth Mullin. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today the appointment of six new Assistant District Attorneys to the Queens District Attorney’s Office. The new ADAs received their degrees from Columbia Law School, Cornell Law School, Emory University…
Read More