MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice announced the indictment of a 22-year-old Roosevelt man on murder charges in connection with a fatal attempted carjacking that occurred in Hempstead in July.
Tayquan Clark was arraigned today on the following grand jury charges:
• Murder in the 1st Degree (an A1 felony)
• Murder in the 2nd Degree (an A2 felony)
• Two counts of Robbery in the 1st Degree (a C felony)
• Four counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree (a C violent felony)
Clark faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of the top charge. He was ordered to be held without bail by Nassau County Court Judge David Sullivan and is due back in court on Jan. 15, 2015.
“Thanks to good work by our local police partners, we are closer to bringing justice to the family of a 26-year-old man who paid the ultimate price for being in the wrong place at the wrong time,” DA Rice said.
DA Rice said that ballistics and other evidence showed that a handgun possessed by Clark was used in a July 5 attempted carjacking in Hempstead that left a 26-year-old resident of the village dead. The victim, identified by police as Shawn Boone, was found dead from a gunshot wound in a late-model BMW on Princeton Street, and police at the time had asked the public for help in finding the suspect.
The handgun, a Smith & Wesson snub-nose revolver that was reported stolen in 1971, was linked to Clark when, on July 26, Hempstead Police officers responded to a report of Clark pointing the gun towards at least one person at a gathering in Hempstead. Clark ditched the gun in bushes and was almost immediately stopped by police, who recovered the gun, arrested Clark and charged him with Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree. Clark was still in jail, not having made bail, when he was arraigned today on his new charges.
ADA Martin Meaney of DA Rice’s Major Offense Bureau is prosecuting the case. Clark is represented by Stephen Kunken, Esq.
The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent until and unless found guilty.