Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Rahlik Pinnock was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stabbing a man in the backyard of the victim’s home in Jamaica in February 2022. Responding officers found the disoriented victim with stab wounds to his chest and arm, which required extensive medical intervention. The altercation took place after Pinnock tried to solicit the victim’s girlfriend for sex outside a liquor store on Sutphin Boulevard.

District Attorney Katz said: “After an earlier dispute outside a liquor store, the defendant trailed a man and his girlfriend back to a home in Jamaica and stabbed the victim multiple times in the chest and arm, causing life-threatening injuries. After evading law enforcement for 16 months, the defendant was apprehended in Pennsylvania. I thank the members of the NYPD who never gave up on this case, and my prosecutors for ensuring that a just resolution was achieved in this case.”

Pinnock, 35, of 115^th Road, Jamaica, pleaded guilty on September 25 to assault in the first degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michelle Johnson, who today sentenced the defendant to 10 years in prison and five years post-release supervision.

According to the charges:

• On February 1, 2022, at approximately 11:50 p.m., Pinnock made advances toward a woman from inside his vehicle. He then followed the woman inside a liquor store at 115-30 Sutphin Boulevard in Jamaica.
• The woman phoned her 22-year-old boyfriend, who arrived at the liquor store and confronted Pinnock. The boyfriend punched Pinnock, and Pinnock tried to get the man to go into his car.
• Pinnock left the store and drove away in a gray SUV. The victim walked several blocks to his home in Jamaica along with his girlfriend. As he neared the house, the victim was approached from behind by Pinnock, who chased him into the backyard. Pinnock pulled out a knife and stabbed the man multiple times in the chest and arm. Pinnock immediately fled the scene.
• The victim was taken to a local hospital where he underwent life-saving surgery for stab wounds that pierced through his lung and into his heart. His girlfriend saw that Pinnock left one of his sneakers behind, later resulting in a DNA analysis linking the defendant to the crime.
• Pinnock fled to Pennsylvania within 24 hours of the stabbing, where he was apprehended in June 2023 and extradited to New York to face charges.

Assistant District Attorney Kiran Cheema, Supervisor in the District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Bureau, prosecuted the case with the assistance of Assistant District Attorney Tara DiGregorio, Deputy Bureau Chief, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jessica Melton, Bureau Chief, under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Gerard Brave.