FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
Brighton Beach Man Found Guilty for
Fatal Stabbing of Brooklyn Man
Victim Attempted to Flee; Incident Caught on Surveillance Video
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 26-year-old Brooklyn man has been convicted of second-degree murder for stabbing a man in the chest following an argument outside commercial establishments in Brighton Beach.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant provoked a fight and then stabbed the victim as he tried to escape. Senseless acts of violence will not be tolerated in Brooklyn and this defendant has now been held accountable for taking a young man’s life.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Jonathan Mansilla, 26, of Brighton Beach, Brooklyn. He was convicted yesterday of second-degree murder following a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent DelGuidice. The defendant will be sentenced on November 7, 2016 at which time he faces 25 years to life in prison.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on June 27, 2014, at approximately 2:20 a.m., the defendant engaged the victim, Alberto Munive-Torres, 27, in a physical altercation at the intersection of Brighton 5th Street and Brighton Beach Avenue. The victim then rode away on his bicycle in an effort to remove himself from the defendant. The defendant chased the victim on foot and retrieved a knife from his waistband before reaching around the victim, from behind, and stabbing him once in the chest.
The victim eventually collapsed, falling from his bicycle to the ground. The defendant then proceeded to kick the victim repeatedly about the head and face. Surveillance footage from surrounding buildings captured the incident.
The defendant was apprehended a few blocks away approximately 20 minutes later and found with blood stains on his shirt. The blood on the defendant’s shirt was later determined to be Munive-Torres’, according to trial testimony. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York determined the victim’s cause of death to be a single stab wound of the right chest.
The case was investigated by Detective Mitchell Eisenberg of the New York City Police Department’s 60th Precinct and Detective James McCafferty of the Brooklyn South Homicide Squad.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Olatokunbo Olaniyan of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Akosua Goode of the District Attorney’s School Advocacy Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Taub, Homicide Bureau Chief.
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