Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Justin Aguilera was sentenced to 4½ years in prison for brutally attacking a Malba couple outside their home during an illegal car meetup in November 2025. Aguilera pleaded guilty last month to gang assault after attacking the male homeowner, who attempted to clear him and other trespassers from his lawn. He punched the victim’s wife in the face when she attempted to protect her spouse.

District Attorney Katz said: “Justin Aguilera participated in a lawless street takeover and then, acting with others, viciously assaulted a married couple on the lawn of their nearby home. We will not allow illegal car meetups to disrupt our peaceful neighborhoods, and we will use every tool at our disposal to arrest and prosecute the organizers and participants who create mayhem. I thank my prosecutors and our partners at the NYPD for apprehending this defendant and getting justice for the homeowners.”

Aguilera, 20, of Far Rockaway, pleaded guilty in August to gang assault in the second degree in satisfaction of the original indictment. Queens Supreme Court Justice Toni Cimino sentenced him today to 4 ½ years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to the court record and indictment, on November 23, 2025, at approximately 12:40 a.m., a homeowner heard a loud commotion outside his residence on 11th Avenue in Malba caused by multiple motor vehicles spinning their tires and creating smoke in front of the corner property.

The homeowner saw a group of at least 10 people, including the defendant, gathered near his yard. The homeowner went outside holding a baseball bat and accompanied by his wife and told the group to leave the area. At that time, approximately six to eight individuals in the group advanced onto the lawn, surrounding the homeowner and advancing toward the front door of the residence.

One of them threatened to kill the husband saying, “I’ll pop you. I’ll put you six feet under. You’re not hard.”

The victim was punched, causing him to fall. Aguilera, along with others, then punched, kicked and stomped on the male victim while he was on the ground.  When the victim’s wife attempted to intervene and push the individuals away from her husband, Aguilera punched her in the mouth. Following the physical attack, Aguilera fled the area.

The male victim suffered multiple rib fractures, a fracture of his right shoulder and other related injuries.

Approximately three hours later, at 3:53 a.m. that morning, Aguilera was arrested for several traffic violations near the intersection of Union Turnpike and Utopia Parkway, in the same car he fled the scene in and wearing clothing that led to his identification in video footage of the earlier assault. He was arrested in December for his role in the Malba incident.

Assistant District Attorneys Dylan Nesturrick and Hugh McCann, of the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Michael Whitney, Bureau Chief, Timothy Regan, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Chief Executive Assistant District Attorney Shawn Clark.