By Betsy Scheinbart
The sentencing of a teenager involved in the September 2000 robbery and murder of a Chinese restaurant owner drew emotional speeches Tuesday from the victim’s widow, the defendant and his mother in a Kew Gardens courtroom.
Boa Zhu Chen, whose husband, Jin Sheng Liu, was murdered Sept. 1, 2000, spoke before Darryl Tyson, 19, of Springfield Gardens, was sentenced to 16 years in prison by State Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy.
Tyson was originally charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty in August to robbery charges in a deal with the Queens district attorney’s office. Four other teens were also charged in the death of Liu, who was hit with a brick as he attempted to deliver food to a deserted house in Springfield Gardens.
Chen, who emigrated from the Chinese province of Fuzhou in 1998, spoke in her native dialect as a court-appointed translator told the court what she was saying.
As she stood in the audience section of the courtroom facing the judge, she asked Tyson questions that went unanswered.
“Why did you trick him into going to a place with no one around?” Chen asked. “Why did you plan this? I wonder who planned this. Why did you do this at night? You did this purposely, right? Didn’t you?”
Tyson and his friends allegedly called her husband’s restaurant, the Golden Wok, on Linden Boulevard in St. Albans, and ordered take-out food to be delivered to an abandoned house in Springfield Gardens, where the attack took place.
Chen began to sob and sniffle as she described how she and her children were suffering, both emotionally and economically. She said her children, who are in high school, will not be able to go to college and that both the businesses her husband ran have closed, at a loss of $100,000.
“After the loss of my husband, I rely on other people’s borrowed money,” Chen said through her tears. “My son asked me, ‘Mom, how are we going to go on?’ and I told my son, ‘step-by-step, go slowly, do well in school.’”
Tyson, who looks even younger than 19, wore a white-collared shirt and tie in court and was restrained by handcuffs. His back was turned to Chen as she addressed him.
Tyson apologized to Liu’s widow and two teenage children, saying he never meant to harm him.
“I’m very sorry for what happened, sorry I can’t take it back,” Tyson said. “I never intended to kill anyone.”
He acknowledged that he caused pain not just to Liu’s family but to his own as well. To his own family, he said, “I promise that I will come out of that prison a better man.”
His mother, who did not disclose her first name, said she wanted to express her sincere sympathy to Liu’s family. She said she tried to teach her son how to live a moral life, to keep track of his daily activities and to get to know his friends.
Tyson’s mother said she tried to help one of her son’s friends who was charged in the murder by allowing him to live with her while he was experiencing family problems. She did not identify the friend.
She said her son’s friends invited him to “play a prank with deadly consequences” and that Tyson “was the victim of peer pressure.”
Before sentencing Tyson to 16 years in prison, Hanophy said “when you make a plan to lure someone to a location to rob them, it is not a prank.”
After the sentencing, several of Tyson’s family members, who were sitting in the back of the courtroom, became emotional. One of Tyson’s family members grabbed a photographer from the New York Post, yelling at her to stop taking photos.
Two of the other teenagers involved in the case, Springfield Gardens residents James Stone, 17, and Jamel Murphy 18, also pleaded guilty to robbery in plea bargain arrangements with the DA’s office. Stone was sentenced Oct. 2 to 17 years in prison and Murphy is awaiting sentencing.
A 15-year-old defendant from Springfield Gardens who is accused of striking the fatal blow to Liu’s head with a brick will go on trial next month on charges of murder in the second degree.
Stacy Royster, 17, of Rosedale, charged with making the phone call for take-out food, will also be tried next month on charges of murder in the second degree.
Reach reporter Betsy Scheinbart by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 138.
