PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release on December 6, 2006
Contact: William J. Smith (718) 556-7150
William.Smith@rcda.nyc.gov

D.A. Donovan: Murder Conviction in 2002 Shooting of Deli Clerk
***S.I. Jury Convicts Jonah Alston, 23, of 2nd Degree Murder in Fatal Armed Robbery, 2nd Defendant Pending Trial***

     STATEN ISLAND, NY - Richmond County District Attorney Daniel M. Donovan, Jr. today announced that a jury in Staten Island State Supreme Court has convicted a Brooklyn man on charges of 2nd Degree Murder, Robbery in the 2nd Degree and Attempted Robbery in the 1st Degree for his role in the January 2002 shooting death of a West Brighton delicatessen clerk during a robbery. He will face a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison when he is sentenced before Supreme Court Justice Stephen J. Rooney on January 4, 2007.

     The jury unanimously convicted Jonah Alston, 23, of Alabama Avenue, Brooklyn, for his role in the January 22, 2002 robbery of the Azzal Deli & Grocery, 1804 Richmond Terrace, during which Hamoud Thabid, 32, was fatally shot. Alston was convicted on an indictment which alleged that he accompanied Ollman Lopez, 22, of DeGroot Place, Staten Island, during the robbery, which resulted in the victim being fatally shot by Lopez with a .380 caliber handgun. Lopez is facing a separate trial on murder, robbery and weapons possession charges.

     In August 2006, Alston was convicted on a felony robbery charge for a May 2004 armed robbery of the same delicatessen as the fatal shooting, then operating under the name Fresh Deli. He was acquitted at trial of four other robberies, two each at a West Brighton tavern and a Richmond County Savings Bank branch. He will also be sentenced on that conviction on January 4, 2007. He faces a maximum of 5 to 25 years in prison for the 2004 robbery.

     The case against Alston was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Mark Palladino of the Investigations Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Raja Rajeswari of the Supreme Court Bureau; under the supervision of Mario F. Mattei, Chief of the Investigations Bureau and Paul A. Capofari, Chief of the Supreme Court Bureau. The defendant is represented by Mario F. Galluci, Esq.

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