FLORIDA RESIDENT FOUND GUILTY OF ROBBING YELLOW CAB DRIVER AT GUN POINT IN JACKSON HEIGHTS

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a Florida resident who held a .25 caliber pistol to a Jackson Heights yellow cab driver's mouth while robbing him has been found guilty after a one week jury trial.

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Kurt Miller, 28, of 540 NW 4th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He will be sentenced on the first degree robbery conviction on July .24th by Supreme Court Justice Sheri S. Roman. He faces up to 25 years in prison.

District Attorney Brown stated, "This was a particularly brutal crime in which the defendant threatened to kill the cab driver and then hit him in the head with the gun when the driver would not immediately turn over his money."

According to District Attorney Brown, the defendant was acting with another man, Celso Castillo, 18, of 1219 Liberty Avenue, Brooklyn who pled guilty to robbery in the first degree on June 12th and will be sentenced to 8-16 years in prison on August 7th. On March 6, 1997 at approximately 2:00 a.m. the two approached the victim as he was getting into his cab. The defendants demanded money from the victim and when he protested, the defendant put a loaded .25 caliber pistol in the victim's mouth and threatened to kill him. The defendant then hit the victim in the head with the pistol when he did not turn over the money quickly enough. The defendants took the victim's money, ATM card, driver's license and $117 in cash. When the victim refused their demand that he tell them his PIN number, he was again threatened with death. He gave them a PIN number and they then forced him to stay in the cab until they could get away.

After the robbery, the cab driver called the police and a description of the defendant was broadcast over the police radio and police officers from the 115th Precinct began canvassing banks in the area. Police located the defendants approximately one mile from the crime scene as they were getting into a white Ford Escort where the police recovered the victim's property. The pistol was retrieved a short distance from the car. The victim was brought to the scene and identified the two defendants.

Assistant District Attorney Jennifer N. Naiburg, of the Queens District Attorney's Kew Garden's I Bureau under the Supervision of Bureau Chief Michael B. Aloise prosecuted the case.