You'll see more of this if Conservative extremists get their way
Queens Landlord Convicted in Plot to Kill Two Tenants
By COREY KILGANNON
A Queens landlord was found guilty yesterday of trying to plot the murder of two tenants paying $400 a month for an apartment in his building, so that he could rent out their apartment to new tenants for at least $1,500 a month.
A jury in State Supreme Court in Queens found the landlord, Juan Basagoitia, 50, guilty of hiring two other tenants in the building to kill William Lavery, 35, and his brother, David Lavery, 40, who had lived in the three-bedroom apartment on the third floor since childhood.
The brothers, who were badly injured in the attack but survived, legally assumed the lease in recent years from their father, George Lavery, who first took the apartment in 1964 at the same rent.
On March 4, 2003, the two hired tenants, David Robles, 37, and Danny Machuca, 30, broke into the brothers' apartment, on Ithaca Street in Elmhurst, and beat and stabbed them. The two attackers were arrested shortly after the attack and were found guilty in recent months.
After their arrests, they told the police that Mr. Basagoitia had agreed to pay them $2,500 to kill the brothers. Mr. Basagoitia, 50, a Bolivian immigrant who bought the building in 1997, was then arrested also.
