Gun trafficker gets 31 years
A New Jersey man found guilty of gun trafficking, including the sale of pistols that were notoriously stolen from the New York Police Department’s Ninth Precinct last year, has been sentenced to 31 1/3 years in state prison, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance announced on July 30.
On June 24, Jason Teneyck, 36, was convicted by a jury of all 18 felony charges he faced, including seven counts of criminal possession of a weapon and eight counts of criminal sale of a firearm. In addition to the prison sentence, he faces five years of post-release supervision.
Teneyck’s sentencing caps the sixth and final conviction stemming from a weapons and drug bust last summer, which included the arrest of ex-cop Nicholas Mina, who stole the four police-issued handguns from lockers inside the East Village precinct while he was still on the force. Mina pleaded guilty was sentenced to 15½ years in prison last fall.
The four other defendants with ties to that gun and drug trafficking ring, whose ages range from 23 to 66, have been sentenced to a combined total of 37 years in prison.
Although he was not the operation’s ringleader, Teneyck had been identified as a primary seller of the group’s illegally acquired guns, the D.A. said. Teneyck was convicted of selling Mina’s stolen guns to an undercover officer, according to court documents. For playing this part in the trafficking ring — a role which included numerous other illegal firearm sales and attempted sales — Teneyck received by far the lengthiest sentence of all six defendants.
D.A.: Drag racer was high
A Queens man who crashed his car at high speed into an East Village deli last month and injured several people, two seriously, was high on illegal drugs, D.A. Vance announced on July 30.
Shaun Martin, 32, was initially charged with six felonies, including two counts of aggravated vehicular assault, two additional counts of assault and two separate counts of D.W.I. — one including only drug use, and one including both drugs and alcohol. He also faces a misdemeanor charge of criminal possession of a controlled substance.
Martin was allegedly high on both methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth, and P.C.P. when he drove at unsafe speeds through the East Village around 7 a.m. on June 19, the D.A. said.
Martin reportedly veered across three lanes of traffic on Second Ave. and drove up onto the sidewalk at E. Fourth St., striking multiple objects including a fire hydrant, phone booth and tree, before crashing into a flower stand outside the East Village Farm deli. Three of the deli’s employees were hit and injured in the crash, with two of the victims suffering broken bones, and one suffering serious brain trauma, the D.A. said.
Martin is scheduled to appear in court again Sept. 10.
Ready for the picking
An Australian tourist, 31, who’d been staying at the Hotel Gansevoort in the Meatpacking District, was apparently drunk and making his way back to the swanky hotel during the early hours of Fri., July 26, when he simply lay down and passed out at the corner of Greenwich and Jane Sts., police said.
Around 4 a.m., officers driving by said they saw a car suspiciously pull over and stop at that corner. Looking more closely, the officers spotted the unconscious Aussie. Meanwhile, the car’s three male occupants had exited and were making for the tanked tourist. The trio — later identified as Ruben Stella, 19; Jason De Jesus, 19; and Rubinson Fernandez, 21 — allegedly began rifling the sleeping man’s pockets to steal his wallet and other belongings, police said.
The officers pulled up and arrested all three men, charging each with attempted grand larceny.
Unprovoked punch
Police arrested two teenage boys, one a minor, for allegedly attacking a 30-year-old woman on a West Village street corner on the night of Fri., July 26.
Sheldon Johnson, 18, and a 17-year-old were reportedly acting in a generally reckless manner around 11 p.m. when they approached and then punched the woman without provocation, before fleeing the scene, police said. After witnesses reported the incident, the teens were later apprehended at Charlton and Hudson Sts. during a police canvass. Both were charged with assault.
In addition, when police caught the two teens, they were in the company of an older friend — later identified as Tarell Heard, 25 — who was also arrested and charged with criminal possession of a weapon, after officers found he was carrying a gravity knife.
Hudson Square road rage
A road rage-induced argument almost boiled over into a stabbing on the afternoon of July 24, but police intervened in time to prevent any violence.
The alleged victim, 36, told police that he was driving downtown around 3 p.m., when he had an unfavorable encounter with another man behind the wheel, eventually leading both drivers to pull over and exchange words near the corner of Varick and Houston Sts. He also claimed that the purported aggressor in the incident — later identified as Dale Stewart, 36 — responded by brandishing a knife and threatening to attack him.
Saying he then feared for his safety, the unarmed driver quickly flagged down a police cruiser passing by the busy intersection, and pointed out the alleged knife-wielder. Officers arrested Stewart, charging him with menacing.
— Sam Spokony
