Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Nando Perez, 64, has been charged with murder and other crimes in the stabbing death of a 65-year-old Queens attorney. The victim was found dead in his Jackson Heights law office, last Wednesday.

District Attorney Katz said, “This is a brutal crime that has stunned our community. The defendant is accused of confronting the victim in his law office, stabbing him repeatedly and then leaving him to die.”

Perez, of East 165^th Street in the Bronx, was arraigned last night before Queens Criminal Court Judge Jeffrey Gershuny on a complaint charging him with murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree. Judge Gershuny set the defendant’s return date for August 13, 2021. If convicted, the defendant faces up to 25 years-to-life in prison.

According to the charges, between 4:20 and 4:37 p.m. on Wednesday, August 4, 2021, the defendant entered the law office of Charles Zolot on 82^nd Avenue near 37^th Street in Jackson Heights, Queens. Perez, who had been a client of the attorney, allegedly attacked him in his second-floor conference room. The defendant is accused of stabbing the 65-year-old victim all over his body. Mr. Zolot sustained at least 20 stab wounds. The defendant then fled the scene. Mr. Zolot’s body was discovered the following morning, Thursday, August 5^th.

The defendant was apprehended yesterday.

The investigation was conducted by Officer Tyler Scala of the 115^th Detective Squad and Detective Joseph Bey of the Queens North Homicide Squad.

Assistant District Attorneys Joseph Grasso and Jonathan Selkowe, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, are prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter McCormack III, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, John Kosinski and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.