Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Rasheen Everett has been sentenced to up to 29 years to life in prison for the murder of a 29-year-old transgender woman inside the victim’s Glendale apartment in 2010. Everett strangled the victim and poured bleach over her body in an attempt to hide evidence before stealing her personal belongings.

 

District Attorney Katz said: “This defendant callously took the life of a young woman and then tried to hide the crime. After a prior reversal of his conviction due to judicial error, we retried the defendant and the jury returned a guilty verdict. I hope today’s sentence brings a long-awaited measure of solace to the victim’s family.”

 

Everett, 43, of Jefferson Street in Manhattan, was found guilty after a jury trial in October of murder in the second degree, burglary in the second degree and tampering with physical evidence. Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky today sentenced Everett to 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge, 15 years on the burglary charge, to run concurrently, and two to four years on the tampering charge to run consecutively.

 

Trial openings began on September 18, 2024, and closings occurred on October 2, 2024. The jury deliberated for approximately one hour.

 

According to the trial records, on March 27, 2010, at approximately 8:50 a.m., Everett entered the apartment of the victim, Amanda Gonzalez Andujar, 29, on 62nd Street in Glendale.

 

Several minutes after he entered the apartment, the victim’s upstairs neighbors heard screams and loud banging consistent with a struggle. Police were called to the location, but no one answered the door when they tried to gain entry.

 

Approximately 18 hours later, at 3:03 a.m. on March 28, Everett was observed on video surveillance exiting Andujar’s apartment by himself while carrying two bags.

 

At approximately 4:00 p.m. on March 30, 2010, concerned family members who were unable to reach Andujar entered the apartment and found her body on a bed with chemical burns and a bottle of empty bleach nearby. The Medical Examiner later determined that the chemical burns occurred post-mortem, and that the cause of death was compression of the neck.

 

Everett fled the state but was arrested in Las Vegas on April 9, 2010. The defendant’s DNA was found under Andujar’s fingernails.

 

The defendant was originally tried and found guilty in 2013. That conviction was reversed in 2021 due to a judicial error of the trial judge.

 

Assistant District Attorneys Eric Weinstein and Alyssa Mendoza of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau prosecuted the case, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys John Kosinski, Bureau Chief, and Karen Ross, Deputy Bureau Chief and Cold Case Unit Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Shawn Clark.