A Long Island man was found guilty of gunning down his wife in a Jamaica hotel room, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Monday.
Malcolm White, 44, of Elmont, was convicted by a jury Friday of attempted murder following a two-week trial for shooting his 34-year-old spouse during a dispute in the Hillside Hotel in March 2020.
According to trial testimony, on March 27, 2020, emergency medical technicians and police responded to a 911 call from the hotel on Queens Boulevard in Jamaica. Upon their arrival, first responders searched to find the exact source of the earlier distress call. A callback led to the defendant who was sharing a room with his wife Charisse Ayres.
When EMTs contacted White’s room, the defendant told them, “If you come in here, I’ll blow her head off.”
Police later found the victim in the hotel lobby, naked, with a gunshot wound to her arm and several bone fractures to her face. Police attempted to gain entry to the defendant’s hotel room by kicking in the dead-bolted door. Inside, police found blood in various places around the room.
Investigators later recovered a fired bullet from a drained bathtub and found two cellphones — one concealed under the mattress and another in the toilet. A tower of old tires beneath a broken window in the hotel room led police to conduct an area search outside. The defendant was discovered naked behind the hotel. Police recovered an unloaded handgun near the back of the hotel.
On Friday, White was found guilty of attempted murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree before Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky, who presided over the two-week trial.
“I am committed to holding accountable those who perpetrate acts of brutal violence against their intimate partners, and this case is especially heinous,” Katz said. “Following a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of attempting to murder his wife, who was found bleeding from a gunshot wound and serious facial injuries. The conviction cannot undo the trauma but will hopefully provide a sense of peace to the victim knowing her abuser will be sentenced for his criminal actions.”
Justice Tavinsky set sentencing for Sept. 28. White faces up to 25 years to life in prison.
