Wendy Murder Suspects Could Get Death Penalty

Standing mute, their heads bowed and arms stiffly behind their backs, the two accused Wendy killers listened in Criminal Court on Sunday to Assistant District Attorney Gregory L. Lasak recount their grisly murders of five minimum-wage fast food workers lying gagged and bound in the basement of the Flushing fast food restaurant.
The defendants, John B. Taylor, 36, and Craig Godineaux, 30, arraigned in a cramped basement courtroom in Kew Gardens, never uttered a word as they faced a grim-visaged Judge Michael Aloise.
The gunmen were led into the courtroom an hour after a police motorcade, sirens blaring, deposited them at the Criminal Courts Building on Queens Boulevard. The arraignment lasted a half hour in a hushed courtroom filled with reporters and curious on-lookers.
Lasak described the methodical robbery and execution-style shootings in low, almost mournful tones. He told Judge Aloise that the seven victims — five of them dead — were bound, gagged and blindfolded with duct tape, their heads covered with plastic bags, and shot one by one as they knelt in a basement freezer room. Two of the victims survived the blood bath. They are Patrick Castro who was shot in the cheek and JaQuione Johnson, who was upgraded from serious to guarded condition at New York Hospital Queens Medical Center.
His 10-minute account of the murder seemed to have no visible effect on the defendants who made their first court appearance since the late-night shooting last week in the crowded Main Street Flushing Wendy location. Lasak said that Taylor had threatened suicide and the judge ordered a suicide watch outside his maximum-security jail cell.
Taylor and Godineaux were charged with 25 counts including five of first degree murder each, for the crime that shocked the city.
As they were being led out of the courtroom and into holding cells, Godineauxs girlfriend shouted, "Craig I love you." Godineaux never glanced back, but heard another spectator blurt out, "Burn in hell."
The defendants brief appearance in the jammed courtroom was the first step in a legal process that could end in a death chamber where the State of New York would administer a lethal injection.
Once the court formalities concluded, the press was led to District Attorney Richard Browns office for a news conference. With 11 television cameras grinding away, Brown said that "we have an overwhelmingly strong case against both defendants. They have now been remanded without bail pending grand jury action."
Brown recounted how the defendants, acting together, entered Wendys in Flushing intending to forcibly steal money from the restaurant. He said Taylor was in possession of a loaded .380 caliber handgun and Godineaux knew that Taylor was in possession of the gun.
"It is alleged," Brown said, "that seven employees of the restaurant were directed to to a basement area and were bound and gagged and shot."
The district attorney said he had 120 days to decide if to pursue the death penalty or life without parole.
"I will — as the law requires — thoroughly and painstakingly review all of the evidence in the case and all of the facts and circumstances surrounding the crime. I will also want to meet with the surviving victims and their families before making my decision."
Brown acknowledged that he had confessions from both defendants including videotaped statements and identifications by witnesses present at a police lineup.
He commended detectives and the assistant district attorneys who have worked on this case over these past few days.