Posted on: October 04, 2019 10:00 AM

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Queens man convicted of murder and attempted murder in shooting men sitting in parked car

Acting Queens District Attorney John M. Ryan announced today that a jury has found a Queens resident guilty of murder, attempted murder and other crimes in the 2016 shooting death of a New Jersey man and the wounding of two others as they sat inside of a parked car on 89 Avenue in Jamaica, Queens Acting District Attorney Ryan said, ?The defendant fired into a vehicle, killing one man and injuring two others. This senseless gun play has no place in the streets of Queens. A jury weighed the evidence presented at trial and rendered a guilty verdict. This defendant now faces spending the rest of his life behind bars.?

The District Attorney Office?s identified the defendant as Elvin Hernandez, 31, of 143 Street in the Jamaica section of Queens. Following a two-week long trial, a jury today found the defendant guilty of second-degree murder, second-degree attempted murder, first-degree assault, first-degree attempted assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael B. Aloise, who presided at trial, set sentencing for October 23, 2019, at which time Hernandez faces up to 75 years to life in prison.

Acting District Attorney Ryan said that, according to trial testimony, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, September 3, 2016, Hernandez walked up to a vehicle parked in the vicinity of 89 Avenue and 139 Street in Jamaica, Queens and asked the three men sitting inside ?Are you kings?.? Shortly thereafter, the defendant fired several rounds into the vehicle, striking then 20-year-old Albert Schaper, of New Jersey, once in the chest. The driver sustained multiple gunshot wounds to both arms. A third male victim sustained multiple lacerations from shards of broken glass. All three men were removed to a nearby hospital, where Mr. Schaper was pronounced dead. The surviving victims were treated for their injuries. said Acting District Attorney Ryan, according to trial records, the defendant was arrested on September 6, 2016, by the Violent Felony Apprehension team after authorities received information from an individual with knowledge of the shooting.

Senior Assistant District Attorney Timothy Regan, of the District Attorney?s Homicide Trials Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, Bureau Chief and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes, and John W. Kosinski, Deputy Bureau Chief of Homicide Trials, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders. (From Queens DA Office)