A 67-year-old Queens man who shot and killed an ex-con trying to rob him two years ago and had an arsenal of firearms in his apartment pleaded guilty Thursday with the understanding that he would be sentenced to four years in prison, prosecutors said.
Charles Foehner pleaded guilty to criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree during a brief court appearance.
He was facing 25 years in prison if he went to trial, his attorney, Thomas Kenniff, told the Daily News.
Foehner was accused of gunning down Cody Gonzalez, who waved a sharp object — later determined to be a pen — after approaching him outside his Kew Gardens apartment building around 2 a.m. on May 31, 2023, and demanding his cash and cigarettes, police said.
He called 911 after shooting Gonzalez and, when questioned, freely admitted he emptied his revolver into the would-be mugger.
“It didn’t go off accidentally,” he told police at the time bluntly. “I pulled the trigger.”
Cops later discovered that his gun was unlicensed. They also learned that he had an arsenal of weapons in his apartment that were also unlicensed.
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Ellen Moynihan / New York Daily News The driveway where the shooting took place is pictured on Wednesday, May 31, 2023. (Ellen Moynihan / New York Daily News)
The Queens resident claimed he carried the weapon over fear of street crime exacerbated by the oft-criticized changes in New York’s bail laws, a police source told The News at the time.
Foehner dodged a homicide charge for killing Gonzalez, but was hit with 25 counts of weapons possession. He was initially ordered held on $50,000 bail, which he paid.
Kenniff said that Foehner was facing “a lot of exposure” if the case went to trial.
“He shouldn’t have been charged to begin with,” Kenniff said of his client, calling the plea deal “bittersweet.”
“Mr. Foehner was heroic in what he did,” the attorney said. “This whole situation could have been a lot worse for him had he not had the ability to defend himself. And I don’t like that we live in a city that makes it near impossible for otherwise decent, law-abiding, hardworking individuals to defend themselves from the criminals that our justice system repeatedly spits back out onto the streets.”
At Foehner’s arraignment, Queens Criminal Court Judge Jerry Iannece said Foehner, who had no criminal record, faced mandatory state prison time if convicted on the gun charges.
“An unlicensed, loaded weapon on the street in the city of New York where there are too many, too many shootings, way too many shootings,” he said. “The court is quite concerned.”
In an exclusive interview with The News shortly after he was killed, Gonzalez’s family said their slain relative was mentally disturbed, before adding the intended victim shouldn’t be blamed for defending himself.
“We don’t fault the shooter,” said Stephan Gonzalez, 35, who is related to Gonzalez’s adopted family.
