LAST OF DEFENDANTS SENTENCED FOR VICIOUS GANG BEATING
THAT LEFT STREET VENDOR IN COMA
Six Men Attacked Victim Who Tried To Stop Them From Stealing
Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark today announced that a Bronx man has been sentenced to eight years in prison and five years post-release supervision in a brutal gang assault on a street vendor in May 2017. He is the last of six defendants to be sentenced.
District Attorney Clark said, “In a cowardly act, the defendant and five others brutally assaulted a 53-year-old street vendor, kicking and punching him in the middle of a busy Bronx area. The beating, which happened in front of the victim’s wife and children, left him in a coma with life-altering injuries.”
District Attorney Clark said the defendant, Octavious Profit, 25, of 2846 Heath Avenue, was sentenced today to eight years in prison and five years post-release supervision by Bronx Supreme Court Justice James McCarty. Profit pleaded guilty to second-degree Gang Assault on April 22, 2019.
Three other men who participated in the attack, Richard Williamson, 35, last of 1214-16 Hoe Avenue; Jay Ortiz, 47, of 873 Elsmere Place; and Joshua Cruz, 24, of 3219 Corsa Avenue, have been sentenced for the assault. Cruz pleaded guilty to second-degree Gang Assault on April 22, 2019 and was sentenced on May 23, 2019 to seven years in prison and five years post-release supervision. Williamson pleaded guilty to first-degree Gang Assault on April 25, 2019 and was sentenced on May 16, 2019 to five years in prison and five years post-release supervision. Ortiz pleaded guilty to second-degree Assault on April 25, 2019 and was sentenced on June 17, 2019 to two and a half years in prison and two years post-release supervision.
Two other defendants, William Burgess and Enrique Foote, were sentenced last year for their roles in the attack. Burgess was sentenced to four years in prison and three and a half years post-release supervision after pleading guilty to second-degree Gang Assault, and Foote was sentenced to three years in prison and three years post-release supervision after pleading guilty to second-degree Assault.
According to the investigation, on May 2, 2017, at the corner of 149th Street and ThirdAvenue, the defendants repeatedly struck Souleymane Porgo, 53, a street vendor, after hetried tostop one of them from stealing his merchandise. Video of the attack showed the defendants beating the victim to the ground as he lay unconscious.
The assault left Porgo in critical condition with multiple facial fractures, and he also requiredmultiple surgeriesfor swelling and bleeding in his brain. He still undergoes rehabilitative treatment.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Michelle Villaverde, Supervisor inTrial Bureau 50, under the supervision of Lawrence Piergrossi, Chief of Trial Bureau 50, and the overall supervision of James Brennan, Deputy Chief of the Trial Division, and Theresa Gottlieb, Chief of the Trial Division. District Attorney Clark thanked Detective Richard Simplicio of the 40th Precinct Detective Squad for his assistance in the case.
Follow Us