‘I STILL FEEL DIZZY’
Man beaten by robbers hoping for their arrests 10 years for bid to kill his trans girlfriend
A Queens restaurant deliveryman beaten senseless by a gang of robbers is wracked with pain more than a week later — and hoping his attackers are caught.
Ronaldo Marcelino, 40, was out making deliveries for Toro Bravo Mexican Restaurant in Jackson Heights when seven young attackers closed in near 90th St. and 37th Ave. about 2:20 a.m. on July 25.
“I was working when they came to attack me,” the still visibly dazed Marcelino told the Daily News. “When I woke up, I was in the hospital. I still have headaches. I still feel dizzy.”
Surveillance video shows five attackers kicking and punching him as he lay helplessly on his back. The muggers, who appeared to be between ages 16 and 20, rummaged through his pockets and took off with the cash he made that night and his cell phone.
Marcelino suffered a broken nose, bleeding on the brain and other injuries.
He was in the hospital for six days and now takes four types of medication for the pain. It was the second time he had been robbed on the job. He was previously jumped and spent two days in the hospital.
“They hit me, but it wasn’t too hard like this time,” he said of the previous attack.
Marcelino said he works 12 hours a day, four days a week delivering food and assisting in the kitchen. He said he needs to get back to work as soon as possible to keep up with his bills.
“It’s not safe, but it’s a job,” he said. “I don’t have hope, but I want the police to find them.”
Cops released the video of the attack last week and asked the public’s help identifying and tracking down the assailants — but so far have made no arrests.
His sister Celia Policarpo, 38, worries Marcelino may never be the same.
“I can see that he’s not here,” she said. “His mind is not 100% there.”
Policarpo said her brother works too late at night and that is putting him at risk.
“At night it’s a little bit more dangerous to be in the street,” she said. “I think there has to be more police on the street at night.”
She hopes to see attackers arrested.
“I want the justice for him,” she said. “I’m not sure that he is going to be fine.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential. his
A Queens man was sentenced to 10 years prison time Wednesday for attempting to kill his girlfriend after she refused to continue selling sex to line his pockets, authorities said.
David Viltus, 31, of Cambria Heights, pleaded guilty to attempted murder in February for the horrific attack on his exgirlfriend, who is transgender, on April 18, 2018, court filings show.
“The victim in this case was attempting to free herself from exploitation and sex trafficking when the defendant — who was taking the money she made — viciously attacked her,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.
“Anyone who feels trapped by circumstances similar to this victim’s should know this: You are not alone. We are here to continue to vigorously prosecute such cases and protect victims of trafficking and assault.”
Inside a Hillside Hotel room in Jamaica, Viltus viciously threw his ex-girlfriend against a door — knocking it off its hinges — when she said she would no longer engage in prostitution for his financial gain, authorities said.
Viltus then slashed his girlfriend’s face with a scalpel before he smashed a plant over her head, resulting in life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
Violence on transgender people was described as an epidemic by the American Medical Association in October 2019 — a year in which 25 trans people were murdered, the majority of them Black trans women.