Queens Tribune

District Attorney Richard A. Brown announced this week the conviction of a man connected to a killing in 1986.

He now faces a sentence of up to 25 years to life in prison.
Brown announced that a 54-year-old former Queens resident has been convicted of murder in the November 1986 shooting death of his neighbor. The defendant was a fugitive until he was discovered living in California in 2006.

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Victor
Clemente Jr., 54, of San Francisco, California. The defendant was convicted this week of second-degree murder. Queens Supreme Court Justice Richard L. Buchter, who presided over the two-week jury trial, set sentencing for April 30, at which time the defendant faces up to life in prison.

Brown said that, according to trial testimony, the victim, Fred Drapete, 32, lived in the basement apartment of 160-16 79th Pl., a house owned by the defendant’s mother. Drapete and Clemente were arguing about the purchase of an airplane ticket to the Philippines when Clemente shot Drapete in the arm with a defaced 9mm handgun. He then shot the victim an additional eight times in various parts of his body. Part of the shooting was witnessed by Drapete’s young daughters, who were four and five years old at the time.

The case was set for trial on March 31, 1988, but the trial judge dismissed the indictment because the case was not ready due to the unavailability of the only two eyewitnesses known at that time, the defendant’s mother and sister. The case was appealed, and on May 22, 1989, the indictment was reinstated. The defendant then fled the jurisdiction but was found after he was fingerprinted in connection with a job that he had applied for in California. He was returned to Queens on Dec. 8, 2006.