A former Parks Department employee and Ozone Park native was convicted of manslaughter in the fatal 2012 stabbing of a co-worker inside a Flushing recreation center, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
Robert Swann, 53, of 103rd Avenue, stabbed his 31-year-old co-worker Ezra Black in the with a wooden-handled pocket knife in the front torso during a fight at the city-run Flushing Al Oerter Recreation Center on Fowler Avenue on Sept. 4, 2012 before ditching the knife and the clothes he was wearing near Flushing Meadows Corona Park, Brown said. Swann had already admitted to the Police Department that he had stabbed his former co-worker, the DA said.
Swann, who has been held without bail since Sept. 5, 2012, was found guilty of manslaughter in Queens Criminal Court last week, but was acquitted of third-degree criminal possession of a weapon and two counts of tampering with evidence, Brown said. He was sentenced to a maximum term of 25 years in prison, the district attorney said.
“The defendant has now been held accountable for his senseless actions and will spend considerable time behind bars for resorting to violence and taking an innocent life,” Brown said in a statement. “Hopefully, the victim’s family can find some degree of solace in this sentence.”
The district attorney said Swann argued he was acting in self defense after Black tried to attack him. Black, who had only started working with the Parks Department several days before the incident, had already recorded some incidents of misconduct during his short time on the job.
Both were seasonal employees with the Parks Department, the DA said.
At the time of the crime, police said Swann tried fleeing from police before ultimately being arrested near the Unisphere soon after. Black was pronounced dead later that day, Brown said.
Both Swann and Black had histories of arrests, with charges ranging from weapon possession to assault, the DA said.
By Phil Corso
