Photo Courtesy of DA Katz
“This guilty plea brings an end to his reckless criminal behavior,” DA Katz said.
By Forum Staff
A South Ozone Park man has pleaded guilty after going on a violent crime spree between September 2019 and January 2020, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz recently announced.
Rayon Gounga, 22, has pleaded guilty to robbery in the first and second degree. The defendant will be sentenced on Sept. 27.
According to the charges, on Sept. 28, 2019, Gounga used Facebook to set up a meeting with the seller of an Audi sedan. Instead of taking a test drive, the defendant drove off and never returned. He repeated this scheme on October 18, 2019 with another person selling a BMW on Facebook and yet again on Oct. 22, 2019—driving away with a second BMW.
In December 2019, Gounga committed two separate gunpoint robberies of Chinese food deliverymen. In both instances, he got away with the victims’ wallets.
According to the court files, the defendant car-jacked a driver at gunpoint and took the motorist’s Chevy
Photo Courtesy of Google
Gounga hopped out of a stolen van at a gas station and car-jacked a Honda, which he crashed at 135th Street and 109th Avenue.
Suburban on Dec. 29, 2019. About two weeks later, on Jan. 10, 2020, police found the defendant sleeping in the automobile. In an effort to evade capture, Gounga led police on a high-speed chase through parts of Southeast Queens. After crashing the vehicle on the Nassau Expressway, Gounga jumped out and fled on foot. He jumped over a fence and accessed the cargo area at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Moments later, he car-jacked a van carrying nearly a dozen passengers that were on their way from the airport to a nearby hotel.
The chase continued in yet a third vehicle when Gounga hopped out of the stolen van at a gas station and car-jacked a Honda, which he crashed at 135th Street and 109th Avenue. The defendant ran away on foot but was found under a van parked in a nearby driveway.
Gounga hopped out of the stolen van at a gas station and car-jacked a Honda, which he crashed at 135th Street and 109th Avenue.
“This defendant went on a car-stealing spree resembling a real-life, and really dangerous, version of the video game Grand Theft Auto. He also victimized two delivery workers by taking their cash at gunpoint. When police spotted the defendant sleeping in a vehicle he had stolen, he took them on a wild chase that endangered the police and public,” Katz said. “This guilty plea brings an end to his reckless criminal behavior.”
Gounga is facing a nine-year prison sentence.
