Press Release
GRANDMOTHER SENTENCED TO 23 YEARS IN SHOOTING OF DAUGHTER’S BOYFRIEND
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Suzette Olin was sentenced to 23 years in prison today for the shooting death of Shaka Ifil, her daughter’s boyfriend and the father of her grandchild, in his Woodhaven home in July 2020.
District Attorney Katz said: “Gun violence will never be tolerated. This defendant will now serve a long prison sentence for her actions.”
Olin, 68, of Redfern Avenue, Far Rockaway, was convicted by a jury in March of manslaughter in the first degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree. Queens Supreme Court Justice Ushir Pandit-Durant sentenced the defendant to 23 years in prison followed by 5 years post-release supervision.
According to the trial testimony:
• On July 26, 2020, at approximately 2 p.m., a neighbor called 911 after discovering Ifil, 40, lying on the floor of his 91st Avenue apartment with a gunshot wound to his back.
• The victim told police that his girlfriend’s mother shot him. He died later that day at a local hospital due to gunshot injuries to several major organs and blood vessels.
• Security camera video showed a woman who appeared to be smoking a cigarette get out of an Access-A-Ride car service vehicle near Ifil’s home at about 1:51 p.m. July 26, 2020, and then leave the home at 2:01 p.m. The woman was identified as Olin and a DNA test of a cigarette butt found in the apartment was linked to her.
• An investigation revealed that three days before the shooting, Olin’s daughter filed a domestic incident report with police alleging Ifil broke a door in their apartment. Police responded, and bodycam footage showed the broken door. The girlfriend did not appear to be injured.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Gregory Lasak of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau and Ryan Licciardello of Felony Trial Bureau III prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter McCormack III and John W. Kosinski, Senior Deputy Bureau Chiefs, and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.