Nov. 3, 2023 By Bill Parry
An Elmhurst man was arrested Nov. 2 and criminally charged with murder in the second degree and other crimes for the fatal stabbing of a Corona man last month, according to the NYPD.
Brayan Carchi Dutan, 20, of 52nd Avenue in Elmhurst was arraigned Friday in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging him with murder, gang assault and criminal possession of a weapon. Detectives apprehended the defendant in front of his home on the morning of Thursday, Nov. 2 and brought him to the 110th Precinct for questioning in the homicide investigation into the killing of 21-year-old Henry Celleri, of 41st Avenue, just after 11:00 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 6, according to the complaint.
Police from the 110th Precinct responded to a 911 call of a man stabbed near his home on 41st Avenue in Corona, where they found Celleri unconscious and unresponsive with a stab wound to his torso. EMS responded to the crime scene and rushed Celleri to Elmhurst Hospital, where he was listed in critical condition and later succumbed to his injuries, according to the NYPD.
Detectives from the 110th Precinct were able to obtain video surveillance and information provided by witnesses known to the NYPD and the Queens District Attorney’s office and identified Carchi Dutan as one of three men who confronted the victim near his home on the night of Oct. 6. Detectives apprehended Carchi Dutan in front of his Elmhurst home, just over a mile west of the crime scene and brought him back to the 110th Precinct for questioning.
During the interrogation, Carchi Dutan admitted to holding the knife but claimed he did not stab the victim, putting the blame on one of the two other men he was with the night of the fatal stabbing, according to law enforcement sources.
The three men engaged in a dispute with the Celleri that escalated into violence and while the victim was being punched and kicked “one of the unapprehended others displayed a knife and swung at the victim,” stabbing him in the torso, “causing his death,” according to the criminal complaint.
Under New York’s felony murder charge, if a death occurs during a felony, any participant is responsible for the resulting death.
Queens Criminal Court Judge Hector Gonzalez ordered Carchi Dutan remanded and set his next court appearance for Nov. 6.
The two other suspects remain at large, according to an NYPD spokeswoman,