A Queens grand jury indicted a Jamaica man for the fatal drive-by shooting of a rapper outside a Woodhaven pub in 2018.
Johnathan Rice, 43, of 178th Street, was arraigned on Friday on an indictment charging him with murder in the second degree for allegedly gunning down 35-year-old Frank Synder, a Brooklyn hip hop performer and party promoter known as “Hollywood Play,” outside the Tavern Lounge in Woodhaven, where he was hosting an event for a friend’s birthday.
According to the charges, on the night of Oct. 7, 2018, video surveillance showed Synder and a group of people standing outside the Tavern Lounge, located at 97-07 Jamaica Ave., at around 3:15 a.m. A black four-door sedan can be seen on video driving by the entrance to the bar, with multiple muzzle flashes emanating from the front passenger side window, before the car sped away from the scene. Synder, who was the only one in the group hit by the gunfire, collapsed to the ground. Police from the 102nd Precinct in Richmond Hill responded to a 911 call of shots fired at the location and found Synder with gunshot wounds to his left torso and left thigh. EMS rushed him to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he succumbed to his injuries a short while later.
Motor vehicle registration records showed that Rice owned a black Lexus that matched the description of the car seen in the video. During the cold-case homicide investigation, cell phone records for Rice were obtained that placed him in the vicinity of the Tavern Lounge at the time of the fatal shooting of Synder.
“My office does not give up on cases. After a long-term investigation, we secured an indictment charging Johnathan Rice with the senseless 2018 murder of Frank Synder,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “The defendant is alleged to have fatally shot the victim as he stood in front of a Woodhaven bar where he worked as a promoter.”
Rice, who went by the street name “Pretty,” is currently incarcerated at the Attica Correctional Facility for an unrelated crime, according to state records. Rice is serving 25 years to life at the maximum security prison in upstate Wyoming County for attempted murder for gunning down a cyclist in Poughkeepsie, New York, in September 2019.
“I thank my prosecutors and the NYPD members who diligently investigated this cold-case homicide,” Katz said.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder ordered Rice to return to court on Nov. 14. If convicted, he faces 25 years to life in prison.
