JUSTICE A LONG TIME COMING
Bust in 2012 Midtown execution
Cops have finally busted the getaway driver in the Midtown execution of a law student who was stalked and gunned down in broad daylight on a busy street three years ago, authorities said Wednesday.
But police still have not identified the shooter — and don’t appear any closer to catching him.
Lloyd McKenzie, 37, was charged with murder and criminal possession of a weapon forr the shooting death of Brandonn Woodard on Dec. 10, 2012, att West 58th Street and Seventhh Avenue near Carnegie Hall, according to police.
He was held without bail afterr his arraignment in Manhattann Supreme Court.
Five other suspects in Woodard’s hometown of Los Angeles were also slapped with drugconspiracy charges related to the 31yearold’s murder, lawenforcement sources said.
Surveillance footage shows a lone gunman pumping a single bullet into the back of Woodard’s head as the victim checks his cellphone.
Moments later, the killer gets into a Lincoln MKZ sedan to make his escape.
Cops said McKenzie had his own gun as he waited behind the wheel.
Investigators connected McKenzie to Woodard’s murder shortly after the murder, when they spotted the getaway car on surveillance footage going through a toll plaza.
McKenzie wasn’t arrested until this week because the case was stalled until recently because the investigation played out in New York and LA with uncooperative witnesses.
“It took a lot of time and manpower to gather the evidence that was needed to pull the trigger on the arrest,” a source said, adding that for “a long time,” cops failed to get pertinent information from a confidential informant.
McKenzie’s lawyer, Jason Russo, told The Post that he considers the case circumstantial, at best.
Woodard is believed to have been lured by McKenzie to the Big Apple from LA to discuss details of a coasttocoast cocaine operation.
The law student and club promoter had been working as a drug courier for some South Jamaica dealers, the sources said.
He was ultimately killed by his associates after a large sum of money he was carrying went missing, according to police.
Woodard was just one day away from a lawschool semester final at the University of West Los Angeles, where he was a secondyear student.