A pair of pot-dealing partners were arrested Tuesday for executing one of their customers during a 2021 Queens drive-by shooting that was revenge for being robbed by the victim, the feds announced.
Rafael Hernandez, 30, and Joibel Perez, 25, offered their customers a menu of marijuana choices, selling strains like “bubblegum gelato” and “cherry pie 41” out of NYCHA’s Taylor–Wythe Houses in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, prosecutors say.
The 25-year-old victim, Akil Kornegay, reguarly bought marijuana from the two men but in January 2021 that relationship went south because the dealers believed Kornegay owed them money, the feds said.
“I need my bread today,” Hernandez told Kornegay in a flurry of text messages, according to court filings. “Yo u playin wit me? … Boy u ducking me? … U playin kid game wit me that’s a dub.”
Then in February 2021, Kornegay and another person escalated the beef by robbing the two dealers of drugs and cash, prosecutors said.
Hernandez and Perez answered that slight with bloodshed, the feds allege.
Early Feb. 26, 2021, Hernandez and Perez left Perez’s home in Brooklyn got into a black Infiniti sedan and “stalked Kornegay through the city,” according to a letter filed by prosecutors Wednesday.
They followed Kornegay as he drove through a residential neighborhood in Queens, and when he stopped at the intersection of Myrtle Ave. and Woodhaven Blvd., the two dealers pulled alongside him and opened fire, prosecutors said.
Kornegay was hit in the chest. He tried to flee but crashed his silver Chevrolet Malibu into a traffic pole.
Hernandez, who went by the street names “Cap” and “Ralphy,” and Perez, also known as “J.P.,” have both been indicted on charges of of narcotics conspiracy, using a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, and causing Kornegay’s death through the use of a firearm. They face the prospect of life in prison if convicted at trial.
“The defendants chose to escalate a drug dispute to a deadly act of retaliation,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said Wednesday. “Such flagrant violence in our communities will not be tolerated.”
Both men pleaded not guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court Tuesday afternoon and were ordered held without bail.
“I am confident that the charges will be dismissed against him,” Hernandez’s lawyer, Lance Lazzaro, said. “It’s a five-year-old case. What’s changed that they waited so long?”
