Meet the man prosecutors say is the landlord from hell.
Juan Basagoitia, the 49-year-old owner of a three-story Queens building, wanted two tenants out of a rent-controlled apartment so badly, he put out a hit on them, prosecutors will try to prove this week.
“This boils down to one thing, ladies and gentlemen – greed. This defendant’s greed,” Assistant DA Valerie Batista told a Queens jury in her opening argument Friday.
According to prosecutors, Basagoitia was tired of collecting just $400 a month from two brothers who occupied the three-bedroom apartment on the third floor at 40-18 Ithaca St. in Elmhurst.
He allegedly struck a deal with second-floor tenant David Robles, promising him $2,500 cash in return for getting the men out.
Robles then recruited his roommate – whose name is being withheld at prosecutors’ request – and the two attacked the sleeping brothers in their apartment with hook knives early in the morning on March 4, 2003.
At Robles’ trial in May, he victims, brothers William and David Lavery, described being horribly slashed, receiving face, neck and arm wounds.
Robles, 37, was convicted, and is now serving a 40-year sentence.
The accomplice, who was looking at 50 years to life, pleaded guilty to attempted murder last year in exchange for an eightyear sentence.
The accomplice’s testimony – planned for later in the week – should be the linchpin of the case against Basagoitia.
Defense attorney Stewart Orden will try to discredit Basagoitia’s incriminating written statement in which the he admits striking a deal with Robles. He will argue it was penned by a detective and only signed by his client.