SEES NO CRIME
Judge tosses charges vs. 4 who watched gang murder
A Brooklyn judge tossed out charges this week against four men who witnessed a brutal 2019 caught-on-camera murder, because prosecutors couldn’t prove they had any clue about the killing.
Anthony Frazier, 38, Frank Cook, 34, Lerony Dunn, 36 and Chief Poncedeleon, 34, were all standing across the street on March 19, 2019, when six gang members chased victim Tyquan Eversley, 21, into the backyard of an East New York home and shot him to death.
Ten men were arrested in the headline-grabbing case, including the four men who witnessed the slay. Frazier even gestured to the yard where Eversley was hiding, prosecutors said.
But Supreme Court Judge Vincent Del Giudice, in a Tuesday decision, agreed with Frazier’s defense attorney that witnessing the murder and pointing out the victim — however “deplorable” — did not rise to the level of a crime.
“The law requires more than someone being merely present, even when they cheer on, encourage criminal behavior, or even point out potential or intended victims to others for their criminal conduct,” Del Giudice wrote.
Frazier told the Daily News he “started crying” when Judge Del Giudice threw out his charges.
“It was an emotional journey. For this arrest to happen, just knocked me 100 steps back. It knocked my faith in the system. Nothing was done efficiently. And it took my lawyer to stop and question everything and say, ‘Hold on, this is not justice being done here,’” he said Wednesday.
Frazier said he had just walked out of a business meeting when he saw Eversley being chased across the street from him on Cleveland St.
“I see a kid being chased across the intersection, don’t know this kid, never seen him,” he recalled. “I see a bunch of little, young kids chasing behind him. We stood back. We watched the altercation take place.”
FraFrazierier insisted he did not know the gang members, and said he believed they were merely fighting with the victim, or perhaps Eversley had stolen something.
Surveillance video shows Frazier and three other men following the gang into the yard, then running off as he hears gunshots.
“I stayed on scene. I was there when they was pumping him,” Frazier told The News.
He was charged with manslaughter two months later, and stayed on Rikers Island without bail until this January, when his lawyer revealed to Judge Del Giudice the footage from the scene.
“He is not part of a gang, he’s not in a gang. He was not part of the hunt,” said attorney Jay Schwitzman about Frazier. “I’m sorry that he [Eversley] got shot and killed, but Frazier had no idea what was going to happen.”
The six men accused of killing Eversley are still in jail awaiting trial.
“We believed, and a grand jury agreed, that there was legally sufficient evidence to proceed with these charges, but we respect the judge’s decision,” Brooklyn district attorney spokesman Oren Yaniv said on Thursday.