By Courtney Dentch
A Hollis man on trial in the beating death of a Chinese food deliveryman testified Monday that police forced him to sign a statement saying he took part in the in the murder.
Marhone, 20, of Hollis, is being tried in State Supreme Court in Kew Gardens for the death of Ng Cheung Cheung, 52, who was attacked and robbed on June 23, 1999. He is charged with second-degree murder, robbery, and criminal possession of a weapon.
Prosecutors contend Marhone, with friend Rami Merchant and two others, called Yit Wah Chinese Restaurant at 188-06 Jamaica Ave. in Hollis at about 11:45 p.m. June 23, 1999 and ordered food for delivery to an abandoned house at 100-45 195th St. in Hollis. When Cheung arrived with the food, he was handed $20 before Marhone, who was 17 at the time, allegedly hit him in the head with a baseball bat, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Marhone took the stand Monday, telling jurors that detectives at the 103rd Precinct, where he was arrested, told him to sign a statement implicating himself in the crime, the New York Post reported. Marhone contends he was home the night of the murder — an account corroborated by his mother and his cousin, the Post said.
Last week Jamel Johnakin, 18, of Hollis testified that Marhone bragged about the murder to his friends the day after the killing.
Johnakin told the court last Thursday he spoke with Marhone, who was his friend, on June 24, 1999, the day after Cheung was attacked. The two were talking about Johnakin’s trip to Long Island when Marhone told him about Cheung, he said.
“I was telling him I was having fun and he told me he had fun, too,” Johnakin said. “He told me that he beat up that Chinese man.”
When Johnakin saw Merchant later that day, he began to tell the same story, Johnakin said.
But it was not until Johnakin was arrested on June 28, 1999, for stealing a car that he told the police about the incident.
