A Flushing man was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday for a violent attack on a woman as she stood in front of her Parsons Boulevard home in 2022.
Michael Fan, 25, of Farrington Street, was convicted in absentia in May of burglary, robbery and unlawful imprisonment after he and his two codefendants tied up the victim, held her at knifepoint and burglarized her home. Fan was a fugitive for nearly seven months before he was apprehended in Kew Gardens Hills on Nov. 7. On April 28, Fan appeared before Queens Supreme Court Justice Gary Miret when the case was adjourned for an afternoon call, and the defendant was instructed not to leave the Kew Gardens courtroom, but Fan slipped out of the building and failed to return to court during trial. A bench warrant was issued for his arrest.
According to the charges, the 20-year-old victim was having a smoke in front of her home on Parsons Boulevard at around 3 a.m. on Sept. 7, 2022, when Fan and his accomplices, Sihao Wang, 25, of Booth Memorial Avenue in Flushing, and Dong Ming Shi, 24, of 58th Avenue, also in Flushing, all dressed in black and wearing black masks, grabbed her and dragged her into her apartment.
While inside, Fan pulled out a knife and demanded the victim’s cell phone. He took her into a separate room, where her hands were zip-tied together. The victim’s partner, who was in the basement, observed the home invasion on video surveillance and called 911.
When an officer from the 109th Precinct in Flushing responded to the scene, he saw Fan through a window. At that time, the victim was able to free her hands from zip ties and ran outside, opening a gate that gave the police access to the building. All three perpetrators fled the rear of the location. Wang was immediately apprehended and dropped an air pistol during the brief chase. The responding officer recovered the victim’s cell phone from Wang’s pocket. A lieutenant from the 109th Precinct apprehended Shi minutes later. The lieutenant continued the search, and he located Fan hiding under a deck in an adjacent backyard. Fan was taken into custody, and $1,441 in cash was recovered from his pocket.
“Michael Fan attacked a young woman, ransacked her home and thought he could get away with it,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “He thumbed his nose at the criminal justice system by defying a judge’s instructions not to leave the courtroom during his trial and was convicted in absentia.”
Justice Miret sentenced Fan to 20 years in prison, to be followed by five years of post-release supervision.
“I thank my prosecutors who secured the conviction and our law enforcement partners who never stopped looking for this defendant,” Katz said.
Fan’s codefendant Wang pleaded guilty on Jan. 18, 2024, to attempted robbery and was sentenced to two years in prison and two years post-release supervision. Codefendant Shi is believed to have fled the country.
