After 13 Years, Guilty Verdict In R’wood Killing
Nearly 13 years after his former girlfriend was gunned down at the Ridgewood gym where she worked, a corrections officer from Staten Island was convicted last Thursday, June 6, of her murder and may spend the rest of his life in prison.
Jurors found 48-year-old Christopher (a.k.a. Noel) Clavell-who was previously assigned by the Corrections Department to duties at Rikers Island-guilty of second-degree murder followinga21/2weektrialfor theAugust 2000 death of 32-year-old Barbara Perez, a resident of Rutledge Avenue in Glendale.
Perez’s bullet-ridden body was found inside the now-defunct The Power Factory gym located at 71-13 60th Lane on the morning of Aug. 11, 2000. Reportedly, Clavell-a former Ridgewood resident-shot her amid a dispute with her over legal proceedings stemming from his refusal to provide her with child support payments.
“For nearly 13 years, [Clavell] managed to escape justice, but thanks to the hard work of the NYPD Queens Homicide Squad and my own Homicide Investigations Bureau- and their refusal to let this case grow cold-justice has finally been achieved for the victim and her family,” said Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown in announcing the conviction last Thursday.
Law enforcement sources stated a member of The Power Factory gym found Perez fatally shot multiple times in the rear of the location at around 7:15 a.m. on the morning of Aug. 11, 2000. According to trial testimony, Perez-who was an assistant manager of the gym-was responsible for opening the gym at 6 a.m.
Officers from the 104th Precinct and EMS units responded to the scene. Perez was pronounced dead and her body was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, where it was determined that she had been shot once in the chest and nine times in the head.
As previously reported in the Times Newsweekly, Clavell was questioned by detectives immediately after the shooting, but no charges were filed at that time. In the years that followed, however, the investigation in Perez’s murder continued under the auspices of the 104th Precinct Detective Squad, the Queens Homicide Squad ad the DA’s Homicide Investigations Bureau.
Based on evidence obtained during the investigation, Clavell was indicted by a Queens grand jury and arrested by detectives in April 2011. During the trial, it was revealed that Clavell had “repeatedly harassed and confronted” Perez about child support payments following a legal proceeding in Queens Family Court.
Testimony offered at trial indicated that Perez told family members Clavell claimed he would “sooner kill her than give her any money,” Brown noted.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Joseph Zayas, who presided over the trial, ordered Clavell to return to court on June 27 for sentencing. The defendant faces a maximum of 25 years to life behind bars.
The investigation was conducted in part by Det. Denis Broderick of the Queens Homicide Squad under the supervision of Lt. John Purdoch.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Richard B. Schaeffer, deputy bureau chief of the DA’s Homicide Investigations Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney John Kosinski, chief of the DA’s Vehicular Homicide Unit. Supervising the prosecution were Assistant District Attorney Peter T. Reese, Homicide Investigations Bureau chief; Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders and Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa.
