BRONX, NEW YORK, JULY 19- District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced that Miguel Torres was sentenced to a maximum term of 25 years to life imprisonment for shooting a Bronx businessman to death.
Torres, 50, was found guilty last month on one count of murder in the second degree. The jury deliberated for one day before finding that Torres had caused the death of 59-year-old Mohammad Zafar by shooting him once in the heart while he sat in his car.
State Supreme Court Justice Troy Webber imposed the maximum sentence allowed by law, 25 years to life imprisonment, after the victim’s wife told the court of the pain and suffering that the loss of her husband continues to cause in her life.
The murder occurred in the vicinity of Bainbridge and Rochambeau Avenues on January 24, 2003. After the victim was shot, he exited the vehicle and collapsed on the ground. Torres escaped from the crime scene in the vehicle and later abandoned it, leaving blood on the driver side seatbelt and steering wheel. The vehicle was located by the police two days later and a DNA profile was developed from the evidence recovered at the crime scene and uploaded to the New York State DNA Databank. In June of 2006, the New York State Executive Law was amended requiring defendants convicted of specific DNA qualifying misdemeanors to submit DNA samples to the Databank. On December 22, 2008, the defendant was convicted of Menacing in the Second Degree resulting in the submission of a DNA sample which was a forensic match to the evidence from the 2003 homicide.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Felicity Lung of the Trial Bureau.
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