A Jamaica man was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison Wednesday for stabbing his older brother to death in July 2022 and eluding law enforcement as a fugitive for months until he was tracked down in Florida and extradited back to Queens to face justice.
Henry Gutierrez, 32, of Jamaica Avenue, was found guilty of murder in the second degree and criminal possession of a weapon on Feb. 10 following a jury trial.
According to the charges and trial testimony, Gutierrez lived on the third floor of a multi-family home and on the evening of July 12, 2022, he entered a second-floor apartment in the building that was occupied by his 52-year-old brother Oscar Gutierrez, as well as the defendant’s ex-girlfriend and her son. The brothers got into a heated argument that escalated into violence when Henry Gutierrez retrieved a knife from a kitchen drawer, grabbed a hammer, and yelled for his brother to come out of his room. When the victim emerged from the bedroom, the defendant waved the hammer at him, at which point the victim grabbed a broomstick and swung it at his younger brother. The defendant then stabbed his brother with the kitchen knife 14 times.
Family members inside the home called police, but the defendant fled the scene before officers from the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica arrived. EMS responded to the location and rushed the victim to nearby Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short time later. Crime scene investigators recovered the murder weapon, the hammer, and the broomstick.
Homicide detectives tracked the defendant to Florida, where he had been hiding for nearly four months. He was taken into custody in Volusia County on Nov. 1, 2022, and subsequently extradited back to Queens on Dec. 2, 2022.
Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Aloise, who presided at trial, sentenced Henry Gutierrez on Wednesday to 25 years to life in prison.
“This is an extraordinary family tragedy,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “One brother is dead, and another will spend 25 years to life behind bars for his gruesome killing.”
