Troy Thomas, who was extradited from Guyana to the United States in 2019 to face trial for a December 2011 fatal shooting in New York, has been sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison.
According to a press release from the office of the Queens County District Attorney, Thomas, 37, formerly of 156th Street in Jamaica, Queens, was convicted in May after trial for murder in the second degree over the fatal shooting of Keith Frank. Queens Supreme Court Justice Michael Yavinsky handed down the 25-years-to-life sentence on Friday.
“Despite being on the run for eight years, the defendant has now been held to account for committing this senseless murder. The family and loved ones of the victim, who had just become a father at the time of his death, were denied justice for more than a decade. Today, I hope they can finally put this sad chapter to rest knowing that the defendant will spend a lengthy term in prison for his criminal actions,” District Attorney Melinda Katz was quoted as saying in the statement.
Thomas shot Frank, 20, at a house party in South Richmond Hill after the two started arguing. According to trial testimony, a petty dispute between the men culminated with Thomas shooting Frank once to the chest. Frank was subsequently rushed to a Queens hospital, where he died from his injuries. Thomas, meanwhile, immediately fled New York City and was later found living in Guyana.
In 2018, the US Attorney General and Secretary of State sent an extradition request to the Government of Guyana, which the Embassy served to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Guyana Police Force officers detained Thomas in 2018, and he had remained in the Lusignan prison while waging a legal battle to prevent his extradition. In April, 2019, Thomas lost his final bid in a series of challenges mounted to fight his extradition to the US.
Throwing out his challenge, Justice Navindra Singh found that there was sufficient evidence to have warranted Thomas’ committal for extradition.
During the hearing dismissing Thomas’ challenge, Justice Singh ruled that Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus was within her jurisdiction to conduct committal proceedings and to have issued a warrant of committal for extradition against Thomas. Thomas’ primary challenge to his committal for extradition had been that then Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan had no legal authority to authorise the magistrate to proceed with the committal and, further, that the magistrate had no legal authority to continue on with those proceedings since they purported to act in accordance with sections of the Fugitive Offenders Act that are unconstitutional and in furtherance of the 1931 treaty between the United Kingdom and the United States, which is not incorporated into Guyana’s laws. Following the conclusion of extradition proceedings against him on November 30, 2018, Magistrate Isaacs-Marcus, who presided over the case, overruled a no-case submission which attorney Nigel Hughes had made on behalf of Thomas, thereby ordering that he be extradited. Counsel’s argument had been that a magistrate, being a creature of statute, was not empowered to interpret and or apply the provisions of a treaty which had not been incorporated into the provisions of the domestic laws of Guyana.
