A Corona man who fatally shot another man at point-blank range inside a Jackson Heights bodega in 2018 has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The victim was shot inside 5 de Mayo Deli, located at 81-06 Roosevelt Ave., pictured above in Oct. 2021 (iStock and Google Maps)
May 17, 2022 By Michael Dorgan
A Corona man who fatally shot another man at point-blank range inside a Jackson Heights bodega in 2018 has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison.
Fabian DeJesus-Garcia, 32, was sentenced in Queens Supreme Court Monday after having been found guilty of murder in the second degree in March for killing 31-year-old Seferino Flores-Pineda.
DeJesus-Garcia, of Northern Boulevard in Corona, killed Flores-Pineda after approaching him from behind and blasting him in the face and chest.
The shooting took place inside 5 de Mayo Deli, located at 81-06 Roosevelt Ave., on March 22, 2018, at around 8 p.m.
A second defendant, Gamaliel Desiderio-Sanchez, 32, worked in tandem with DeJesus-Garcia to pull off the shooting and was sentenced Monday to 18 years in prison for manslaughter, prosecutors said.
Desiderio-Sanchez, from the Bronx, handed DeJesus-Garcia a .32 caliber pistol inside the establishment while they waited for Flores-Pineda to arrive.
When Flores-Pineda walked into the bodega, Desiderio-Sanchez distracted him by sparking up a conversation with him.
DeJesus-Garcia, the shooter, then approached Flores-Pineda from behind and gunned him down, prosecutors said.
“This was an execution in a busy commercial area with the defendants ambushing the victim,” Queens District Melinda Katz said. “My office will not stand for brazen acts of violence on the streets of Queens.”
The motive for the killing is unclear.
DeJesus-Garcia was also found guilty of two counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree and unlawful possession of pistol ammunition, prosecutors said.
