A 28-year-old man from Massachusetts pleaded guilty to second-degree assault as a hate crime after he made degrading remarks to two gay men in Jackson Heights, and then stabbed one of them in the arm.
The Queens District Attorney’s office identified the man as Cristian Flores, 28, who lives in Boston, Mass.
According to the District Attorney’s office, Carlos Aleman, 34, was walking with his boyfriend around 4:10 a.m. on Roosevelt Avenue between 80th and 81st streets in Jackson Heights on Aug. 21, 2011, when Flores and other people who have not been caught followed the two men and shouted anti-gay remarks at them. The situation escalated, and Flores and the others started pushing Aleman and his boyfriend. Flores pulled out a knife and stabbed Aleman in the right arm, which caused a deep laceration.
After police approached him, Flores attempted to run away from them. Aleman chased after Flores, tackled him to the ground and held him down long enough for police to catch up to them and arrest him. Aleman was taken to a hospital where he received seven stitches for the stabbing wound.
Flores has been held in jail in lieu of his $25,000 since being arrested in August 2011 and has been ordered to return to court on May 16. According to the District Attorney’s office, he is expected to be sentenced to three and a half years in prison for the crime and one and a half years of supervision after he gets out of jail.
