Rikers Teen Convicted For 2014 Deadly Home Invasion Burglary

Attorneys Rob Kuby and Rhiya Trivedi with their client Prakash Churaman in Queens Supreme Court during trial. Eagle photo by Christina Carrega.

By Christina Carrega

A 19-year-old was found guilty on Monday morning for participating in a push-in home burglary that left his best friend’s brother dead and another relative seriously injured.

Prakash Churaman is expected to get sentenced on Dec. 11 by Queens Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Holder to a minimum of 15 years to life in prison as a juvenile offender.

Churaman was 15 when he, Elijah Gough, 28, and a third man known by authorities as “Trouble” and identified in an exclusive report by the Eagle as Jonathan Wells, commited a home invasion on 144th Street in Jamaica that left 21-year-old Taquane Clark dead.

Assistant District Attorney Andrea Medina said Churaman was the mastermind of the Dec. 5, 2014 botched robbery where marijuana was on the itinerary to loot.

Churaman “betrayed” Clark’s family and tried to distance himself from the deadly scheme during a three-hour videotaped interview with detectives — and his mother by his side — at the 113th Precinct, said Medina.

Clark’s uncle Jonathan Legister survived two gunshot wounds sustained during a struggle with one of the gunmen and their then 74-year-old disable grandmother Olive Legister was held at gunpoint by a masked Churaman.

The elder Legister recognized Churaman’s voice as he told he she wasn’t going to die while holding a silver gun to her nose and temple, prosecutors said.

Churaman was convicted of murder, attempted murder, burglary and other charges.

Gough, now 31, was sentenced to 65 years to life in prison in February.

Wells was not charged.