New York’s Staten Island. In what authorities described as a squatter takeover of a Westerleigh home last year, a third defendant entered a guilty plea to a weapon charge.
The state Supreme Court in St. George is set to sentence 29-year-old Jonathan Pena of Stobe Avenue in Dongan Hills to five years in prison and five years of post-release supervision on January 28.
According court documents, Pena entered a guilty plea to second-degree attempted criminal possession of a weapon before Justice Lisa Grey on January 7.
Following multiple complaints from neighbors, the NYPD responded to a squatter-occupied Westerleigh property in April. (X, a defunct Twitter account)X, formerly known as Twitter
Police at the time said that squatters had taken over a house on Livermore Avenue in Westerleigh when the NYPD carried out a search warrant there in April 2024.
The 121st Precinct at the time posted on X that the raid was the result of multiple neighborhood concerns.
Four people were first taken into custody by police at the location. However, a female defendant’s charges have now been dropped.
The district attorney’s office claims that since then, the city Buildings Department and law enforcement have kept this house out of the hands of squatters.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Matthew Gamberg.
Defense says homeless defendants unfairly prosecuted
Mark Fonte, Pena’s lawyer, claims that for the past year, law enforcement used needless tactics to obtain the aforementioned convictions.
According to Fonte, this case involves a handgun hidden in a home occupied by squatters. The streets of Staten Island are not much safer as a result of these homeless persons being prosecuted.
The protection of our Island’s hardworking inhabitants and street crime should be the NYPD’s and the district attorney’s office’s top priorities.
According to his conjectures, his client ought to be freed in a year.
Armed home invasion: NYPD
Pena was one of four people who reportedly used force and intimidation to evict the illegally occupying person from the property on Livermore Avenue.
According to the prosecution, Pena went through a window and brandished what looked like a gun. According to prosecutors, Michael Roitman, 43, of Tillman Street in Castleton Corners, a co-defendant in the case, also displayed a weapon.
According to authorities, the males went up to a resident of the house and demanded money. According to a police complaint, Roitman then assaulted and choked the girl while attempting to hit her face with the revolver handle.
In June, Roitman entered a guilty plea to charges of criminal obstruction of respiration and felony assault. Justice Lisa Grey is set to sentence him to five years of probation and six months in jail on March 20.
According to court filings, a third defendant, Zachary Torres, 28, of 133rd Avenue in Queens, was discovered by police outside the residence with a switchblade knife and a plastic bag that had residue from cocaine powder.
According to court documents, Torres was given a three-month jail sentence after entering a guilty plea to second-degree criminal trespassing.
A 27-year-old woman who was arrested at the property eventually had her charges dropped. Records also reveal that the same woman is still involved in a felony narcotics case on Staten Island.
Plight of squatter house started with drug overdose, traced to S.I. drug lord: DA
According to law enforcement officials, two suspects detained last week in connection with a startling case involving fraud and drug selling targeted Kristen Maher’s finances after she passed away from a substance use disorder. Rudy Santana is at the bottom left, and Ettore Mazzei is at the top left.Facebook, Facebook
A parent and his adult daughter once lived on the problematic Westerleigh property.
According to a Daily News story and those acquainted with the matter, the daughter continued to live there with her boyfriend after the father passed away in 2021.
According to sources, the residence was occupied by squatters when the daughter, 38-year-old Kristin Maher, who had previously been a registered nurse, passed away in November 2022 from a drug overdose.
Deceased targeted by drug lord
After Maher passed away, her boyfriend and another guy targeted an insurance policy in her name.
Since then, the 42-year-old boyfriend, Rudy Santana, has entered a not guilty plea to grand larceny charges. His next court date is March 11.
The chemicals that murdered Maher were allegedly supplied by the second man, Ettore Mazzei, 62, who ran a sizable drug trafficking network on Staten Island.
Mazzei, a well-known business owner, faces additional charges in the grand larceny case after being arrested on drug-related grounds last summer.
Mazzei has entered a not guilty plea to the accusations in both of the cases that are still pending against him. Fonte also represents him.
After his client’s detention last year, Fonte declared, “My client is a businessman and real estate developer, a pillar of the community.” In the past, he was honored by the community for his dedication to Staten Island. Each and every presumption of innocence and respect are due to him.
The district attorney’s office claims that Mazzei is accountable for a number of violent crimes and overdose deaths connected to the Staten Island local narcotics trade.
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