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Murder for Food

By Associated Press

The story shocked New Yorkers: Back in September, five teenagers looking for a free meal placed an order for Chinese food to an abandoned house, ambushed the restaurant owner who made the delivery and beat him to death with their fist and a brick.

Last week, two of the five teens charged with the crime pleaded guilty to robbery, avoiding life sentences in prison, prosecutors said.

In Queens Supreme Court, James Stone, 17, and Darryl Tyson, 18, admitted to the Sept. 1 beating death of Jin-Sheng Liu, 44, after taking part in a plan to steal $60 worth of food ordered for delivery from Liu’s restaurant, the Golden Wok, said Mary de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

Stone and Tyson agreed to a plea deal to avoid murder charges. They are expected to be sentenced to 17 years in prison.

“That’s not enough,” Liu’s widow, Bao Zhu Chen, 38, told the Daily News through an interpreter. “It was murder. In China, when a person commits a murder, they are sentenced to death.”

Stone and Tyson said that it was Stacy Royster, 18, who placed the order for the food on a cellular phone. Liu delivered the food to a vacant home in Springfield Gardens on a dead-end street about a half-mile from the restaurant. Police said when Liu arrived with two bags of food, four boys jumped from the bushes, put a sheet over his head and beat him. Liu’s wife called police when he did not return to the restaurant within 15 minutes. Police were led to the teens by tracing the cellular telephone call.

Stone, Tyson, Royster and Jamel Murphy, 18, have all pointed their fingers at Robert Savage, 15, as the killer, prosecutors said. If found guilty, Savage would serve only nine years in prison because he was a juvenile at the time of the murder, said Queens prosecutor Stephen Antignani.

On June 21 Murphy agreed to a plea deal and plead guilty to first-degree robbery. He will serve 11 years in prison. Prosecutors said they expect him to testify against Royster and Savage.

Savage is set to stand trial Nov. 1.

Royster is undergoing psychiatric evaluation and is expected to be offered a plea agreement.

Stone and Tyson could face 25 years to life if they are found guilty of the murder charges.

The teenagers, all friends, were arrested on Sept. 5. They were described as being from middle-class families in the New York City borough of Queens and having no criminal records.