Threw Rival Off Roof In 1995
A Flushing man has been convicted of second-degree murder for stabbing a man several times about the neck and upper body and then pushing him off the roof of an apartment building in 1995.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown. identified the defendant as Andrew Caballero, 39, formerly of Kissena Boulevard in Flushing. Caballero was convicted Wednesday, Aug.6aftera21/2weektrialbya jury of nine women and three men of second-degree murder before Queens Supreme Court Justice Barry A. Schwartz.
Justice Schwartz set a sentencing date of Sept. 10, at which time the defendant faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
Brown said, “Murder cases may grow cold but they are never closed until justice is served. Thanks to the determined efforts of police and prosecutors in this case and the emergence of new evidence that day has finally come – nearly twenty years after the victim was brutally murdered. Having been convicted of the crime, the defendant will now face the consequences of his actions by spending a lengthy time behind bars.”
According to trial testimony, the victim, Jason Kollmann, 21, of East Flushing, was with Caballero on the roof of Caballero’s Kissena Boulevard residence at approximately 8 p.m. on Feb. 1, 1995, when Caballero stabbed Kollmann several times about the neck, chest and back and then pushed him off the roof, causing him to land on a fifth-floor fire escape.
Kollmann, who knew the defendant through Caballero’s girlfriend, was pronounced dead at approximately 11 p.m. by EMS personnel on the scene.
Assistant District Attorney Karen L. Ross, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal, bureau chief, and Jack Warsawsky, deputy bureau chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
