Queens man convicted of killing transwoman sees verdict reversed on judge’s error

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The Queens Criminal Court building. agle file photo by David Brand

The Queens Criminal Court building. Eagle file photo by David Brand

By David Brand

A Queens man found guilty of killing a transgender woman inside her apartment saw his 2013 conviction reversed Wednesday due to a judge’s error at trial.

An appellate court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial for Rasheen Everett, who was sentenced to 29 years in prison for murdering the woman inside her Glendale home.

Queens Justice Richard Buchter failed to notify the defense of a note from jurors requesting to view surveillance video taken from the scene, declined to enter the note into the record and neglected to respond to the note, the four appellate judges wrote in their decision. Buchter retired from the bench at the end of 2020.

Everett was arrested in 2010 and charged with choking and killing Amanda Gonzalez-Andujar, 29, a trans woman who he met online.

At his 2013 trial, Queens prosecutors said Everett killed Gonzalez-Andujar “within 20 minutes” of arriving at the apartment. He “bleached her body, cleaned the apartment and left the apartment” before heading on a bus trip to Las Vegas, prosecutor Karen Ross said at the time.

The killing generated nationwide outrage and spurred calls to protect transgender women who face a disparate risk of violence and murder. Everett’s trial attorney John Scarpa is now in prison after being found guilty of witness tampering.

Buchter reprimanded Scarpa for attempting to smear Gonzalez-Andujar as not “in the higher end of the community” as he argued for a lighter sentence for his client.

“This court believes every human life in sacred,” Buchter responded. “It’s not easy living as a transgender, and I commend the family for supporting her.”

After the jury delivered the guilty verdict, Gonzalez-Andujar’s family members celebrated justice served.

“Thank God! God is good!” they shouted in the courtroom, according to the New York Post.

The Queens DA’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.