By Rich Bockmann
A 24-year-old from Jamaica is facing life in prison after a jury Monday convicted him of killing a store clerk three years ago while sticking up a Flushing gas station for a few cartons of smokes.
After a three-week trial in State Supreme Court, Maurice Echols was found guilty Monday of murdering Nadeem Khan as he worked the overnight shift at a Mobil gas station on Northern Boulevard in 2010.
“This is a tragic case in which a gas station employee on the overnight shift was coldly shot and killed during a robbery, which ultimately netted the defendant and his cohort a few cases of cigarettes and cigars,” Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said. “The defendant’s callous actions call for a lengthy sentence to punish him and to protect society.”
Khan, a 39-year-old Pakistani immigrant who lived in Nassau County, was working late at the gas station one July night when Echols and a Bronx man named Christopher Roberts entered the station around 1:30 a.m..
Roberts told the jury that Echols walked inside, drew out his gun and shot Khan several times before the two of them grabbed cigarettes and cigars from behind the counter and took off, Brown said.
Khan was found sometime after the shooting by a bystander.
Roberts, 24, pleaded guilty to robbery and Echols was convicted of murder, attempted robbery and criminal possession of a weapon, the DA said.
Echols faces up to life in prison without parole when he is sentenced before Justice Gregory Lasik May 29.
Reach reporter Rich Bockmann by e-mail at rbockmann@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4574.
