By Connor Adams Sheets
The second of two admitted hate crime offenders identified in the case of the vicious beating and robbery of an openly gay man last year in College Point was sentenced Friday to 12 years in prison.
Daniel Rodriguez, 22, of 502 115th St. in College Point, was sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry Korn to the prison term and five years of post-release probation after pleading guilty Dec. 2 to one count of first-degree robbery as a hate crime for the Oct. 8, 2009, robbing and attacking of Jack Price, 50, after he left a College Point deli in the early morning hours of Nov. 23, 2009, according to Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.
“The sentence imposed today is a measure of justice for a brutal and unprovoked attack and robbery of a man simply because he is gay,” Brown said in a statement. “Hate crimes whether they be motivated by gender, religion, sexual orientation or ethnicity will not be tolerated in Queens County.”
He was joined in the attack by Daniel Aleman, 27, of 18-04 College Point Blvd., who Kron sentenced to eight years in prison and five years of probation last month after he pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery as a hate crime for his role in the attack.
In exchange for Rodriguez’s guilty plea last month, Kron promised him a sentence of between eight and 12 years in prison and a period of post-release supervision.
On Oct. 8, 2009, at about 4:30 a.m., Rodriguez and Aleman shouted anti-gay slurs at openly gay Jack Price after he left a deli in College Point, according to the DA. The men punched, stomped and kicked him, then stole his personal property — including a wallet and cash, the DA said.
Price was taken to a nearby hospital with a broken jaw, several broken ribs, two collapsed lungs and a lacerated spleen. He remained there for about three weeks.
The brutal College Point attack contributed to a continuing furor over hate crimes in New York City bolstered by other vicious incidents in the Bronx and Staten Island that led to former Gov. David Paterson’s signing of a bill in July allowing judges to order that any criminal convicted of committing a hate crime undergo training or counseling.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
