BROOKLYN — A 31-year-old man was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for a brutal 2014 knife attack inside an elevator in East New York, Brooklyn. The unprovoked stabbing claimed the life of 6-year-old Prince Joshua (PJ) Avitto, and seriously wounded his best friend, 7-year-old Mikayla Capers.<\/p>\n
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, \u201cThis defendant committed an unspeakable crime when he attacked two defenseless young children for no reason, killing one and leaving the other seriously injured. Today\u2019s sentence ensures that he will not be able to harm any other innocent people. I know that PJ\u2019s loved-ones will never be consoled and that Mikayla, whose courageous testimony helped to obtain this conviction, will forever carry this tragedy with her. But I hope that they will find some solace by knowing that justice was done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Daniel St. Hubert, 31, of Cypress Hills, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Giudice to 50 years to life in prison following his conviction last month of second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder after a jury trial.<\/p>\n
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on June 1, 2014, a sunny Sunday afternoon, PJ, 6, and Mikayla, 7, were playing tag in a playground outside the housing development where they both lived. At about 5:40 p.m., the children asked for permission to go up to PJ\u2019s home, at 845 Schenck Avenue, in East New York, Brooklyn, to get some Italian icees.<\/p>\n
The two children entered the elevator, followed by the defendant. The evidence showed that the defendant then repeatedly stabbed and slashed the victims with a steak knife. PJ was stabbed 11 times and died at the scene from wounds to his chest. Mikayla was stabbed 16 times, but miraculously survived, and managed to crawl to the building\u2019s entrance.<\/p>\n
One witness saw the defendant enter the elevator and then leave the building a short time later. Two other witnesses saw him fleeing the location and stumbling in a grassy area outside the building, according to testimony. A steak knife was later recovered from the area where he stumbled. DNA recovered from the handle of the knife matched the defendant and blood from the blade was a match to the two victims, the evidence showed.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the defendant was seen in a surveillance video, wearing the same clothes described by the witnesses, about two blocks from the crime scene approximately 10 minutes after the incident. A search warrant that was later executed at his residence recovered packaging from a four-piece knife set that contained one knife with the same make and model as the knife that was used in the attack.<\/p>\n
On June 4, 2014, just before he was apprehended, the evidence showed, the defendant was seen making graffiti with a black marker on a stop sign. That inscription read: \u201c$Kills I will BK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BROOKLYN — A 31-year-old man was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison for a brutal 2014 knife attack inside an elevator in East New York, Brooklyn. The unprovoked stabbing claimed the life of 6-year-old Prince Joshua (PJ) Avitto, and seriously wounded his best friend, 7-year-old Mikayla Capers. District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, \u201cThis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5409,"featured_media":120663,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1,54],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n