NY JUDGE'S LENIENCY RESULTS IN MURDER

'This is crazy': NYC teen allegedly murdered ‘innocent kid’ after getting probation in 2020 shooting 

 

By Joe Marino, Kevin Sheehan and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon

 

New York Post

November 8, 2021

 

 

A Bronx teen was cut loose by a judge in an armed-robbery shooting over prosecutors’ objections — only to proceed to allegedly murder an “innocent kid” in a botched gang hit, The Post has learned.

Steven Mendez, 17 — who was once even busted for allegedly pulling a gun on his own mom — could have been kept behind bars for up to four years after pleading guilty in the violent armed robbery in 2020, according to officials and law-enforcement sources.

Instead, the reputed gang member was freed on five years’ probation in May at the judge’s discretion.

That allowed Mendez to allegedly fatally shoot “completely innocent’’ 21-year-old Saikou Koma in the head last month in what may be a case of mistaken identity fueled by gangbangers out for vengeance, sources said.

“This judge let him go, but I’m not letting [it] go,” said Koma’s stricken mother, Haja Kaira, to The Post through tears Monday. “My son will get justice. This is crazy.

 

 

Steven Mendez, 17, is accused of shooting ‘innocent kid’ Saikou Koma, 21, in the Bronx last month. Mendex was previously released on probation for armed robbery

 

“He don’t deserve to be out there,’’ she said of Mendez. “A killer is a killer. He’s going to do it again.”

Koma’s dad, Amar Bully Koma, called the decision to free Mendez “insane.

“What is wrong with this judge?” the father said. “If this was the judge’s son, or his nephew or a relative, he would not let him go. The city, the mayor. If this was his kid, they would not let him go.

“They do not care about us.”

Mendez had been indicted last year on first-degree assault, first-degree robbery and felony gun-possession charges stemming from his role as an accomplice in the July 17, 2020, armed robbery in The Bronx.

The victim was shot in the leg during the crime, prosecutors and court officials said.

 

  Saikou Koma, 21, was killed on Oct. 24. His alleged killer was out on probation at the time of his death

 

Mendez, who was 16 at the time, was prosecuted as a “youthful offender” in the case. He pleaded guilty and was temporarily placed in a non-secure facility pending sentencing, according to the state Office of Court Administration.

 

Judge Denis Boyle granted Steven Mendez probation in May

 

In May, acting Bronx Supreme Court Justice Denis Boyle then granted him probation over prosecutors’ objections to send the teen to prison.

Mendez already had at least three other busts on his record, including the 2019 gun case in which he allegedly slapped his mother with an open hand and pulled a loaded .357-caliber handgun on her. The teen allegedly became incensed when he asked his mom for money and she turned him down, the sources said.

 

Haja Kaira, Saiko Koma’s mother, is demanding justice

 

But Boyle opted to set the teen free, citing a report that Mendez was “fully engaged” and performing well in school.

“The judge felt that a state prison sentence at that point in his life for a crime committed as an accomplice at the age of 16 was not warranted and accordingly was sentenced as a [youthful offender] to five years’ probation,” OCA spokesman Lucian Chalfen told The Post on Monday.

Under state law, defendants between ages 16 and 19 can be granted “youthful offender” status — which reduces their sentences and seals their criminal records.

A rep for Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said the judge’s decision came “over our objections,” and that prosecutors wanted a sentence of 1 1/3 to 4 years — the maximum allowed for a youthful offender convicted of a felony.

Mendez was then with other suspected gang members Oct. 24 when they sought payback for the beating of one of their own by a rival gang, sources said.

The riled-up suspects came upon Koma on Ryer Avenue in Fordham Heights and shot him — with Mendez allegedly pulling the trigger of the .357-caliber handgun, according to a criminal complaint in the case.

The document accuses Mendez of shooting Koma in the head.

Law-enforcement sources said the group may have mistaken Koma for a member of the rival gang — or was simply out for blood — but insisted that the victim was “a completely innocent kid.”

Meanwhile, Boyle’s decision to cut Mendez loose wasn’t the Bronx jurist’s first brush with controversy.

In June, the judge came under fire after he released a 16-year-old defendant with a string of prior gun busts — who was later charged with killing a father of two with a stray bullet. 

The teen, Alberto Ramirez, was bailed out by his family after Boyle reduced his bail from $75,000 to $10,000 — leaving him free to allegedly gun down 34-year-old dad Eric Velasquez.

Last year, Boyle also released Jordon Benjamin, 16, who was facing a manslaughter charge, only to have the teen allegedly slash a young woman.

And in 1999, Boyle agreed to a deal that allowed a homeless man to live in a shelter while he awaited sentencing in an attempted sex attack.

The suspect, Ishmael Holmes, 22, was then implicated in a rash of sexual attacks on the Upper East Side.

Koma’s heartbroken mother, railed that the judge has one job.

“You have to keep us safe,’’ she said. “If one part of the system doesn’t work, none of it works. Too much gun violence everywhere now.”

Mendez was arrested Friday in Koma’s murder. He was still on probation from the 2020 case.

The suspect was arraigned last week and this time, held without bail.

“When a kid gets caught with a gun and gets home before dinner, they’re sending a weaponized version of that kid back on the street,” a disgusted source said of the situation.

“They’re more dangerous,” he said of such suspects.

Mendez’s Legal Aid Society lawyer in the slay case did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

A rep for the city Department of Probation said the agency is “legally precluded” by state law from providing information on youthful offender cases.