A Queens judge threw the book at a former Parks Department employee who stabbed a co-worker to death on the job, sending him to prison for 25 years for the manslaughter death.
“You killed my brother, a father of three and one of them will never know him because he was just a month old when you murdered him,” said victim Ezra Black’s brother Azaryah in an impact statement before Robert Swann was sentenced Monday for the September 2012 killing.
Swann, 53, escalated a verbal altercation when he brandished a knife and stabbed Black, 31, once in the chest inside a garage at Flushing Meadows Park.
The pair had worked together as janitors for two short weeks. Swann testified on his own behalf at trial and told detectives that Black was always disrespectful to him and other colleagues.
“I pray none of your family would go through this pain and suffering we go through,” said Black’s heartbroken mother, Mildred, 66, as other relatives in the courtroom cried uncontrollably.
“I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him, my father was a great man,” wept Black’s 13-year-old son, Joshua.
The courtroom was filled with relatives of Black and Swann. Sixteen letters of support from Swann’s family, friends and co-workers were submitted to the court requesting leniency from Justice Ira Margulis.
“Your statements after the arrest are the most telling, you ‘couldn’t live in an environment with someone who disrespects you,’ but I’m sorry, there’s no justification here,” said Margulis, who slapped Swann with the maximum amount of prison time for manslaughter.
The jury acquitted Swann of murder, criminal possession of a weapon and tampering with physical evidence, but convicted him of the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Black didn’t even have a weapon and there was no threat or justification, said prosecutor Denise Tirino.
Swann got “too emotional” to speak at the proceedings. Through his attorney, Michael Sifff, he instead said he “never meant for this to happen, he just wanted to go an overtime shift that day.”