Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced today that Kevin Carroll, 39, has been sentenced to 18 years-to-life in prison after a jury convicted the Manhattan resident of robbery and aggravated harassment, a hate crime.

District Attorney Katz said, “Our Office successfully prosecuted the defendant after he targeted a man waiting for a train at the Long Island Railroad Jamaica train station in July 2020 and hurled homophobic insults and slurs and then robbed the victim. Hate has no place in Queens. A jury weighed the evidence presented at trial and found the defendant guilty. Today, a judge ordered him to prison as punishment for his hateful actions.”

Carroll, of 104^th Street in Manhattan, was found guilty of robbery in the second degree and aggravated harassment in the second degree, a hate crime, following a two-week-long jury trial. Queens Supreme Court Justice John Zoll, who presided at trial, sentenced the defendant to a term of 18 years-to-life in prison as a mandatory persistent felony offender. The defendant’s criminal history includes a 2000 conviction for attempted robbery of a 15-year-old and a 2003 conviction for the attempted aggravated assault of a police officer who approached him as he panhandled in the subway. When the female officer asked him for identification, Carroll body slammed her onto the platform and tried to shove her onto the tracks as a train entered the station.

District Attorney Katz said that, according to trial testimony, on July 22, 2020, at approximately 7:20 p.m., the defendant approached the victim, a 40-year-old doctor, who was standing on the platform of the LIRR Jamaica train station and asked him for a dollar. When the victim replied that he did not have a dollar, the defendant became angry and threw a water bottle at him before temporarily leaving the area. Moments later, Carroll returned telling the victim that he found a dollar and threw it at the victim. Carroll then launched a verbal harangue yelling homophobic slurs at the victim and then punched him in the face.

Continuing, DA Katz said, the victim fell to the train platform where he lost consciousness. The defendant took the victim’s cell phone and his gym bag then fled the scene. Video surveillance at the station captured the defendant’s movements minutes before the attack as well as afterwards.

The victim suffered a permanent injury to one of his retinas due to the incident.

The defendant was arrested two days later on another matter and was identified by the arresting officer after viewing the surveillance video from the LIRR station.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Brovner, Bureau Chief of the DA’s Hate Crimes Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Serena Nguyen, of the Hate Crimes Bureau prosecuted the case, under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Trials Pishoy Yacoub.