Stabbed Man He Met Online
A Massachusetts man has admitted to fatally stabbing a Forest Hills man whom he had met for an apparent rendezvous inside the victim’s apartment back in June 2009, prosecutors announced.
Alexys Fermaintt, 33, of Wolcott Street in Holyoke, Mass. pled guilty in Queens Criminal Court last Tuesday, June 19, to first-degree manslaughter for the death of 38- year-old Michael Pecora, who resided on 65th Avenue in Forest Hills, on the morning of June 17, 2009.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Gregory L. Lasak, who accepted Fermaintt’s plea, ordered him to return to court for sentencing on July 20; the defendant faces 20 years in prison, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
“The guilty plea is a measure of justice for the victim’s family in that they will be spared the trauma of hearing all the gruesome details of the killing at trial while being assured that the person responsible for this brutal attack on their loved one will serve a lengthy prison sentence,” Brown said in a statement issued last Wednesday, June 20.
Law enforcement sources said the incident took place just after midnight on June 17, 2009, inside Pecora’s apartment on 65th Avenue between Queens and Yellowstone boulevards.
According to information obtained by police during their investigation, Fermaintt met Pecora at the apartment after making arrangements through a website. However, the meeting turned sour when the two men became embroiled in an argument, as previously reported.
The criminal charges noted that Fermaintt then stabbed Pecora multiple times about his body, then stole the victim’s laptop computer, cell phone and watch and fled from the scene.
Members of the 112th Precinct discovered Pecora’s body after responding to the location later that evening in response to a 911 call. Paramedics declared the victim dead at the scene.
Fermaintt, who previously resided in the Bronx, was tracked down by detectives the following day in Holyoke, Mass. and confessed to the crime. He has been held in custody without bail since his arrest, Brown added.
The investigation was conducted by the 112th Precinct Detective Squad the NYPD Queens Homicide Squad.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Shawn Clark of the D.A.’s Homicide Trials Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, bureau chief, and Jack Warsawsky, deputy bureau chief.
