‘Drop hammer’ on suspect in 2011 Qns. slay
A career criminal who’s spent years bouncing in and out of jail has been charged in the haunting 2011 slaying of a Queens deli clerk, officials said Saturday.
Dewayne Henry, 41, appeared confused when he appeared in a Queens courtroom Friday and was slammed with murder, robbery and weapons possession charges in the July 8, 2011, killing of Jamaica bodega worker Jorge Marte, according to family members who were at the court proceeding.
“He didn’t know why he was there to begin with,” Marte’s son Joel Marte told the Daily News on Saturday. “And they dropped the hammer on him.”
“I said ‘f--k you’ to him,” as Henry passed him in the courtroom, Marte’s son told The News.
The Marte family continues to mourn the loss of the 65year-old patriarch during a robbery at the Melani Grocery Store on Guy R. Brewer Blvd.
“My father was an honest man,” Joel Marte said. “He was loved by the community in Jamaica and the area. He was loved by many.”
Authorities charge that Henry was wearing a mask when he strode into the store about 10 a.m. on the day of the slaying, demanding money from the cash register. Marte and another worker were in the store at the time.
The other worker ran toward the back and Henry chased after him, police said. But when Marte made a dash for the front door, Henry allegedly whirled around and unloaded on him, hitting him once in the chest.
The mortally wounded Marte stumbled toward the front door and collapsed. He was rushed to Jamaica Hospital, where he died.
Officials said Henry, who lived nearby, was considered a suspect in the killing early on, but wound up getting locked up on unrelated assault case as detectives collected evidence against him.
A year after the bodega slaying, Henry was sentenced to three years in prison on the assault case and was paroled in November 2015, according to court records. Two years later, he was locked up again for violating his parole and released in October 2017. He was facing another set of weapons possession charges that stemmed from an arrest in February when he was picked up for Marte’s killing, court records show..
“It’s not easy to say, (but) I’m glad he’s (arrested),” said Marte’s widow, Isabel Marte. “No. I’m not happy to see any human being in that situation. But (Henry) deserved it because he killed my husband. And he’s not coming back.”
“I was told the last time he was arrested, they were actually shooting at him — not the police, other people,” Marte’s son said of Henry. “He’s a career criminal. He’s a person who should be off the streets. And hopefully this will do it.”
Relatives said they were told Henry had used the same gun he shot Marte with during another crime, which helped police and prosecutors seal the case. The Queens district attorney’s office couldn’t immediately confirm the details of the arrest.