It was a long time in coming, but justice was finally served to a former Long Island City resident who fatally shot his friend at the Queensbridge Houses complex nearly 25 years ago.
James Pacheco, 44, who resided on 10th Street, was ordered on Wednesday, Nov. 9, to serve 15 years behind bars for the shooting death of William Pabon Figueroa in August of 1992.
Pacheco, who is currently serving a life sentence in Florida for an unrelated killing, confessed in a 2012 letter to killing Figueroa and pleaded guilty in Queens Criminal Court in August of this year to second-degree murder.
According to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown, Pacheco fatally shot Figueroa twice in the back of the head inside a fifth-floor hallway in an apartment building on 10th Street between 40th and 41st avenues on Aug. 26, 1992.
Following the shooting, prosecutors said, Pacheco visited Figueroa’s apartment and stole a bag containing $5,000 in cash.
The New York Daily News reported last year that Pacheco allegedly confessed to killing Figueroa in an effort to spend his final years in a New York prison rather than a Florida penitentiary.
