VIRGINIA MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO MURDERING RETIRED CITY WORKER

Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced today that a part time roofer from Virginia pleaded guilty to murder today in the bludgeoning death of a 69 year old retiree who he had accompanied from Virginia to Queens to help renovate a house the retiree owned in Queens.

District Attorney Brown said, "This was a vicious and merciless beating of a senior citizen by a young man in a rage over a trivial matter. It ended in the tragic death of a former New York City employee who had worked hard all his life as a sanitationman and had retired to live in Virginia. The deceased owned a two family house here in Queens and had hired the defendant to help him with some renovations. After a day's work, the defendant insisted that the deceased give him money for dinner. When the deceased refused the defendant hit him repeatedly in the head with a table leg".

District Attorney Brown identified the defendant as Marvin Penick, 32, of 316 Richmond Street, Danville, Virginia. He pleaded guilty today to murder, tampering with physical evidence and possession of a weapon. The guilty plea was entered before Supreme Court Justice Randall Eng who indicated that he would sentence the defendant to 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on November 10, 1998.

According to the District Attorney, the deceased, Mr. Moses Elmore who also lived in Danville, Va., hired the defendant to accompany him to Queens to help with renovations on his house at 156-14 137th Avenue. It was charged that at about 12:!0 a.m., after working all day on the house, the defendant demanded dinner money and flew into a rage and began hitting Mr. Elmore with the leg of a table after Mr. Elmore refused to give him the money. The defendant fled to the street after the beating and flagged down a passing patrol car. Police found the deceased's body in bed and recovered the murder weapon along with a bloodied T-shirt owned by the defendant who was placed under arrest.

Assistant District Attorney Jack Warsawsky of the District Attorney's Homicide Trials Bureau which is under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Daniel A. Saunders and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Gregory L. Lasak was in charge of the case.