Army Private Gets Up To 12 Years For Killing Young Mother

A 23-year-old Queens man who was on holiday leave from the United States Army has been sentenced to up to 12 years in prison for recklessly firing a gun into the air killing a young mother peering out of the window of her fifth-floor Briarwood apartment in December 2005.
District Attorney Richard A. Brown Brown said, “The defendant, having admitted his guilt and having waived his right to appeal, has now been sentenced to prison for shooting the stray bullet that killed a young mother as she stood at her apartment window. Although the defendant’s actions were not motivated by evil, nor were they malicious, as an Army recruit trained in the safety and handling of weapons, he should have known better than to aimlessly fire a deadly weapon in a crowded residential area. As a result of his thoughtless and irresponsible conduct, the defendant took a mother’s life, destroying a family and leaving her two small children to face life without her. He will now live for the rest of his life with his guilt.”
The defendant has been identified as Danny Carpio, 23, an Army private stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, who resided in Killeen, Texas and at 139-54 86th Avenue in Briarwood.
The defendant pleaded guilty on May 8, 2006 to second-degree manslaughter before Acting Queens Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin Brandt who imposed an indeterminate sentence of four to 12 years in prison.
The District Attorney noted that the outcome in the case was reached after consulting with the victim’s family who support the disposition.
The District Attorney said the defendant, in pleading guilty, admitted that, just before midnight on December 28, 2005, he had left a relative’s house where he had been drinking and met up with friends outside of 141-68 85th Road in Briarwood. While standing on the street he fired a 9-millimeter semi-automatic pistol numerous times in the air in the vicinity of a six-story apartment building at 141-68 85th Road.
One of the bullets that he fired struck Selina Akthel, 28, in the head while she was standing at her fifth-floor apartment window, fatally wounding her.