Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced on Tuesday, April 12, that a Manhattan man has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for the 2015 shooting death of a man in Melrose.

 

According to the investigation, on July 23, 2015 at approximately 8:40 a.m. at 650 Westchester Avenue, the defendant, Unique Woodfin, 43, of Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem fired two gunshots at Luis Garcia, 40, striking him in the head. It was determined that Florencio Pinos, who was a co-defendant in the case before he passed away from illness in 2017, had a dispute with Garcia a month earlier, which included Garcia menacing Pinos with a gun and stealing his vehicle.

 

In the context of the announcement, Clark said the defendant was sentenced on April 11, by Bronx Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio to 22 years to life in prison for second-degree murder and 18 years to life for second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. The sentences are to run consecutively.

 

“The defendant approached the victim from behind and shot him twice in the head,” Clark said. “He fled the scene and was caught months later. If you shoot someone in The Bronx, you will be held accountable. He faces many years in prison for taking a life.”

 

Woodfin was convicted after a jury trial. The case was prosecuted by Susanna Imbo, chief of Trial Bureau 60, and former Assistant District Attorney Karl Miller of the Homicide Bureau, under the supervision of Christine Scaccia, chief of the Homicide Bureau, and under the overall supervision of James Brennan, deputy chief of the Trial Division and Theresa Gottlieb, chief of the Trial Division.

 

Clark thanked Assistant District Attorney Joshua Weiss of the Appeals Bureau, Bronx District Attorney Detective Investigator John Reilly, NYPD Detective Javish Ortiz of the 40^th precinct and Detective Peter Cullen, now of the NYPD Safe Streets Task Force for their work on the investigation.