Release # 50-2012
www.queensda.org
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
QUEENS COUNTY
125-01 QUEENS BOULEVARD
KEW GARDENS, NEW YORK 11415-1568
718-286-6000
RICHARD A. BROWN
DISTRICT ATTORNEY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MONDAY, APRIL 28, 2014
CONTACT: PRESS OFFICE
(718) 286-6315
FORMER NYC PARKS EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO 25 YEARS IN PRISON
FOR STABBING DEATH OF FELLOW PARKS WORKER
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a 53-year-old Ozone Park
man has been sentenced to the maximum term of 25 years in prison for the 2012 stabbing death of
a Parks Department co-worker at a recreation center in Flushing, Queens.
District Attorney Brown said, “The defendant has now been held accountable for his
senseless actions and will spend considerable time behind bars for resorting to violence and taking
an innocent life. Hopefully, the victim’s family can find some degree of solace in this sentence.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Robert Swann, 53, of 105-02 103rd Avenue
in Ozone Park, Queens. Swann, who has been held without bail since his September 5, 2012,
arraignment, was convicted earlier this month of first-degree manslaughter following a jury trial
before Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira Margulis, who imposed today’s determinate sentence of
25 years in prison.
District Attorney Brown said that, according to testimony at trial, Swann stabbed the victim,
Ezra Black, 31, in the front torso with a knife on the afternoon of September 4, 2012, during a fight
at the Al Oeter Recreation Center, located at 131-40 Fowler Avenue in Flushing. Swann admitted
to police that he stabbed the victim, left the scene with the knife, and then discarded the knife and
the clothing he was wearing in a grass field near Flushing Meadows-Corona Park. Swann and the
victim were both employed as seasonal Parks Department workers.
The investigation was conducted by detectives assigned to the NYPD’s 109th Precinct
Detective Squad.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Denise Tirino, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials
Bureau, prosecuted the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Brad A. Leventhal,
Bureau Chief, and Jack Warsawsky, Deputy Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive
Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant
District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
#
Note to Editors: E-version of this press release is posted on www.queensda.org