A Cambria Heights man faces a decade behind bars for threatening to shoot a man on Bell Boulevard in Bayside during a 2019 argument over a parking spot, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
Jaquan Adams, 29, of 212th Street, was sentenced on Nov. 21 to 10 years in prison for criminal possession of a weapon after he used a gun to threaten a motorist to surrender a parking space he wasn’t himself.
Adams was convicted on Sept. 20 of three counts of criminal possession of a weapon and menacing following a two-week-long trial before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gia L. Morris.
According to trial testimony, just before noon on May 26, 2019, in front of the now-shuttered Rite Aid at 39-20 Bell Blvd., Adams approached the victim as he sat inside a parked vehicle and began arguing with him. As the dispute escalated, Adams pulled out a handgun and threatened to shoot the motorist if he didn’t move his vehicle from the spot. When the victim drove off, Adams got into a Honda Civic and pulled into the spot. The victim called 911 to report the incident and pointed to the Honda Civic when officers from the 111th Precinct in Bayside responded to the scene. Adams was not inside the vehicle and the NYPD launched an investigation into the incident.
A subsequent search warrant was executed for his car and police recovered a loaded .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver with six rounds inside a black canvas bag under the hood of the vehicle. A New York state benefit card bearing Adam’s name and a photo was also recovered from the center console. Laboratory testing confirmed the defendant’s DNA to be present in the handgun.
Adams was arrested on unrelated charges on June 12, 2019, and later confessed to possessing the firearm and arguing with the victim over the parking spot.
“An argument over nothing more than a parking spot escalated into a life-or-death confrontation because the defendant chose to resolve a dispute with an illegal handgun,” Katz said. “He has now been held to full account for his criminal actions. My office will continue to fight the plague of gun violence with all resources at our disposal.”
Adams was sentenced to 10 years in prison to be followed by five years post-release supervision.
