STATEN ISLAND RESIDENT CONVICTED OF ROBBING ASTORIA LIVERY DRIVER

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Staten Island man has been found guilty 6f robbing a livery cab driver in Astoria last fall.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Jacky Simmons, 30, of 12 Markham Drive, Staten Island. He was convicted of robbery in the first degree and possession of stolen property after a one week jury trial before Supreme Court Justice Daniel Lewis. He will be sentenced on July 21 and faces up to 25 years in prison.

According to trial testimony, on October 30, 1997, the defendant, who was wearing an orange jacket, got into a livery cab at the end of the N and R subway lines in Astoria and asked the driver to take him to a location about five minutes away at 24th Street and 21st Avenue. When they arrived at the location, the defendant requested that the driver bring him to a nearby garage where two un-apprehended accomplices came out of the garage wearing ski masks. The defendant pulled out a sawed off shotgun and demanded that the driver turn over his cash and other valuables. One of the accomplices pulled out duct tape and said that they were going to use it to tie up the driver and put him in the trunk. At that point the driver was able to escape and began ringing on doorbells for help. The police were summoned and a half hour later the defendant was spotted getting into another livery cab. He was identified by the victim. During a search of the area, police recovered the orange jacket which the defendant had thrown into bushes near where the original robbery had taken place.

Assistant District Attorney Deborah F. Nathan of the Queens District Attorney's Long Island City Bureau, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Barbara Bernstein, Chief of that Bureau prosecuted the case. She was assisted by student intern Pamela Garas.