Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Carlos Garcia was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned today in Supreme Court on manslaughter and other charges for the death of a fellow commuter last month at the Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue subway station as a result of a physical altercation.

District Attorney Katz said: “Our subway system is a vital lifeline and must be safe for the millions of New Yorkers who depend on it every day. My office will continue to hold accountable anyone undermining the safety of our public transit systems.”

Garcia, 50, of 133rd Street in South Ozone Park, Queens, was arraigned before Queens Supreme Court Judge Toni M. Cimino on a two-count indictment charging him with manslaughter in the second degree and assault in the second degree.

If convicted, Garcia faces up to 15 years in prison. Judge Cimino ordered the defendant to return to court on December 7.

According to the charges, between 4:40 p.m. and 4:47 p.m., inside the Roosevelt Avenue-Jackson Heights subway station, the defendant engaged the victim in a verbal dispute following a brush of shoulders that caused Garcia to drop his cell phone onto the train tracks. The dispute turned physical when the defendant punched the victim, causing him to fall onto the edge of the platform at the exact time an F train approached the station. The train collided with the victim, causing his death.

Assistant District Attorney Ryan Nicolosi of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau is prosecuting the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Michael Whitney, Senior Deputy Bureau Chief, and Shawn Clark, Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for the Major Crimes Division Daniel A. Saunders.