Graffiti writer slain
A dispute between two graffiti writers over a woman ended with the stabbing death of one of them around 5:30 a.m. Mon., Oct. 25, in the second-floor stairway at 272 E. Seventh St.
The suspect, Jairo Pastoressa, 25, turned himself in to Ninth Precinct police and was arraigned on a second-degree murder charge on Tuesday. He was in jail in lieu of $5,000 bail pending a Fri., Oct. 29, court appearance, said a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney.
The victim, Christopher Jusko, 21, of 882 Bushwick Ave., Brooklyn, was pronounced dead at the scene after having been slashed in the neck and stabbed in the back, police said. Pastoressa, a resident of the Seventh St. building, had issued a challenge over the phone to the victim and was waiting for him when he arrived, according to prosecutors at the Tuesday arraignment.
Pastoressa had an 8-inch kitchen knife while Jusko was unarmed and did not physically threaten Pastoressa, according to police. But Pastoressa’s lawyer, Spiro Ferris, said the defendant may have acted in self-defense and asked that he be placed on suicide watch while in jail, according to a Daily News item. Police were waiting to question the woman who was believed to have witnessed the stabbing.
Jusko, who frequented E. Seventh St. in recent years, and Pastoressa were members of the same graffiti crew, neighbors said. According to reports, Pastoressa was an “apprentice” to Antonio “Chico” Garcia, the legendary Lower East Side graffiti muralist. A call to Chico was not returned by press time.
Stanton St. gunfire
Two men and a woman were hit in a hail of gunfire on Stanton St. near Attorney St. around 9 p.m. Tues., Oct. 27. Police did not release the names of the victims, a woman, 53, found lying on the sidewalk in front of a liquor store at 183 Stanton St., and a man, 43, whom police found lying in the intersection. The other man, 35, also not named, was found later in a doorway. They were taken to the hospital in stable condition. Police said later that the suspect, who had not been apprehended at press time, might have been arguing with one or more of the victims before the shooting started. A witness said that she heard six shots being fired, prompting several passersby to run for cover, according to a New York Times item. Another witness said he heard a car speeding away after the shots, the Daily News reported. Police did not say what might have provoked the shooting.
14th St. gun slay
Patrons of the crowded diner at 109 W. 14th St. just west of Sixth Ave. ducked for cover when a gunman fired five shots into the back and head of a Brooklyn man around 4:45 a.m. Sat., Oct. 23.
The victim, Corey Scott, 28, with three bullet wounds in his back and two in his head, was declared dead at the scene. Scott had been arrested in 2004 on murder and robbery charges, but was acquitted. He was stabbed in 2007 in Fusion, a W. 28th St. club, and served a year in prison for a 2008 robbery, according to a New York Post item.
The Good Stuff Diner is popular with revelers on their way home after clubbing in Chelsea and the Flatiron District.
Surveillance videos from the diner show the victim arriving with a group of friends and confronting another group sitting in the back, according to the Daily News. One member of the other group stood up and Scott confronted him. After the shots were fired, the other group and the shooter fled from the diner, according to the item. There were no arrests by press time Wednesday.
Village View raid
Police raided an apartment at 430 E. Sixth St. in the Village View co-op complex around 1 p.m. Wed., Oct. 26, a witness said. The officers, clad in protective gear, removed several items from the building. Police were unable to give any further information by press time.
Manholes blow
Two Con Edison manholes on E. Ninth St. at First Ave. exploded around 12:40 p.m. Tues., Oct. 26, and left more than 200 customers without electricity for several hours. The service was restored by early evening, Con Ed said.
Soho assault
During an argument between two homeless men at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Sts. around midnight Thurs., Oct. 21, one of them hit the other over the head with a bottle. Steve Johnson, 51, told police he thought the victim, 61, was about to pull a knife. Johnson was charged with second-degree assault.
Basement plantation
Police raided 127 Rivington St. near Essex St. around 11:41 p.m. Mon., Oct. 18, and found 446 marijuana plants, eight growing lamps and three water chillers in the building’s basement. They waited for Hakim Quest, 45, a resident of 153 Norfolk St. who rented the Rivington St. basement, to return to the basement plantation and arrested him for criminal possession and criminal sale of marijuana.
Murder sentence
Michael Chin Lenahan, 31, was sentenced to 19 years to life in prison on Fri., Oct. 22, for the October 2007 murder of his girlfriend, Lorna Santiago, in the apartment in Confucius Plaza on Bowery between Canal and Division Sts. where he lived with his grandmother. Lenahan was convicted of killing the victim and hiding her body under a pile of clothes where his mother found it a few days later and called police.
Health-accounts hijinks
A former employee of Continuum Health Partners’ billing office on Water St. was arrested Mon., Oct. 11, for stealing a total of $9,000 from more than 100 credit card accounts that he opened using information he gathered while working at the office, a spokesperson for the Manhattan district attorney said. Eric Wolfe, 36, was being held in lieu of bail pending a Nov. 11 court appearance. Investigators looking into the thefts, between Aug. 24 and Sept. 8, traced them to the computer terminal where Wolfe worked when he was employed by the office, which bills patients of Beth Israel and St. Luke’s-Roosevelt hospitals and the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. Wolfe was in jail in lieu of $50,000 bail pending a Nov. 3 court appearance.
Designer fraud
Police arrested Daniel Burns, 22, around 4 p.m. Fri., Oct. 22, at the Jeffrey store, 449 W. 14th St. in the Meat Market district, and charged him with grand larceny for trying to pay for a bag, a long wool scarf and a Chanel wallet with a total value of $4,520 with an American Express card that was not his. In addition to the card, the suspect had a Maryland driver’s license that was not his, bearing the same name as on the credit card, police said.
Albert Amateau
