B’klyn slay spree
Double homicide susp charged in 3rd murder
A Brooklyn mann arrested in July for carrying out a double homicidee in a blond wig has nown been charged withw killing a third viictim just a weeek earlier, prosecutors said Mon-day.
Charles Her-nandez, 47, was nabbed July 14 in the June 272 killings of Chiooke Thompson, 23, and Stephanie Perkinns, 39, in East New Yorkk.
He’s now beenn chargedchd with murderingg a third person, 35-yeaar-old Kenneth Singleeton, prosecutors an-anounced Monday.ay Both homicides were captured on chilling surveillance video released by police
Hernandez approached Thompson and Perkins on a stooop on Van Siclen Ave.A near Belmont Ave., wearing a blond wigw and a trench coat and carryingc an assault rifle, prosecutorst said.id He allegedly sprayed the duo with 27 bullets, killing each with a gunshot to the head.
Thompson’s mother later said her son was friends with Perkins’ brother and tried to shield her from the gunfire. Cops quickly identified Hernandez as a suspect and released his photo a day after the slaying, asking the public’s help tracking him down.
That double homicide came just seven days after Hernandez is now accused of shooting Singleton to death.
Singleton was washing the tires of his black sedan when Hernandez allegedly sneaked up behind him and shot him to death at Milford St. and Blake Ave. on June 20, according to Brooklyn prosecutors.
Both shootings took place in the middle of the day, less than a mile from each other in East New York. Hernandez lives in the neighborh hood.
Perkins’ cousin Wayne Fields, 30, told the Daily News she left behind a 22-year-old son and worked summers at Howard Pool and in the off-season at Betsy Head recreation center. “She was a fabulous mother,” he said. “A magnificent aunt.
She was a wonderful woman.”
Thompson, a warehouse worker before the pandemic,mic atattended public school and played basketball. “He was very popular and everyone loved him,” his father, Devon Thompson, 57, told the Daily News three days after his son’s death.
Relatives said Singleton had a son and was an entrepreneur who promoted his own clothing line.
“This defendant allegedly went on a murderous crime spree, ruthlessly killing two men and a woman over the course of a week,” Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement.
Hernandez now faces two first-degree murder charges and three second-degree murder charges, as well as ccharges of criminal possession of a weapon and reckless endangerment.
He was ordered held without bail and faces life in prison in the cases.
He was sentenced to five to 15 years in prison in 1992 for assault, weapon possession and reckless endangerment and returned to the pen in 20006 to serve a 12-to-15-year senntence for weapon possesssion. He was released on parrole in 2018.
PProsecutors also annouunced charges Monday agaainst Liza Jenkins, 47, who is aaccused of helping Hernandezz get rid of the clothing he worwore when he allegedly murdered Singleton.
She was charged with hindering prosecution and tampering with evidence and was released without bail.
Jenkins admitted to being with Hernandez the day of the double-killing, but said she had no idea what he was planning. “I had no idea he was up to something. He gave me a ride. It was a regular day for me,” she told the Daily News. “I told them that, and they didn’t like my answers, so they charged me.”
Hernandez’s sister answered the door at his apartment in the Boulevard Houses in East New York on Monday.
“I don’t know anything about what happened. I have nothing to say,” she said. She didn’t give her name.