By Jeremy Walsh
Police have arrested the man they contend was responsible for shooting two men in Sunnyside late last month after he apparently fled to Florida.
Gino Florencia, 31, of Woodside was taken into NYPD custody last Thursday and charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder, assault and criminal weapons possession, police said. He was arrested in Orlando, Fla., Oct. 27 on suspicion of being a fugitive from justice, according to records from the Orange County Jail.
Florencia appeared in court Friday and was remanded without bail, according to Queens Criminal Court records. His next court appearance is Nov. 13. No defense attorney was listed for him by press time Tuesday.
Around 8:25 a.m. Oct. 24, police responded to a five-story brick apartment building — 45-58 48th St. — where they found two 25-year-old Hispanic men with gunshot wounds. Edison Vera, 25, of Elmhurst was pronounced dead at Elmhurst Hospital Center, police said. A second man was treated after being shot in his stomach and left arm, police said.
Vera’s name was not listed on the intercom list at the apartment building where police said he lived.
If convicted of murder, Florencia faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison, the Queens district attorney’s office said.
This is apparently not Florencia’s first brush with the law. He was convicted of robbery in 2000 and sentenced to 10 years behind bars, according to state Corrections Department records. He was paroled in April 2008, records show.
Vera’s murder was the second homicide recorded in the 108th Precinct this year, down from three reported through the first 10 months of 2009. The precinct has seen an overall drop of 10.2 percent in the major index crimes of homicide, rape, robbery, burglary, larceny, felony assault and auto theft.
Reach reporter Jeremy Walsh by e-mail at jewalsh@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
