A Queens man who is fighting his conviction for killing a tourist from Utah in 1990 admitted in a videotaped confession that he and his pals carried out the fatal mugging “to get paid.”
The 24-minute recording was played in Manhattan Supreme Court Thursday as part of a hearing to determine whether Johnny Hincapie’s murder conviction will be tossed.
In the video, Hincapie says he and his group of pals were strapped for cash and trying to get into Roseland Club, so they decided to mug someone.
“We got in a circle. We started making the plans and that’s when everybody went to go rob the people,” he says.
Victim Brian Watkins was in the city with his family for the US Open when he was slain in what became a cause célèbre during a violent era.
Hincapie, now 45, testified on Tuesday that he was beaten and forced to sign a false confession by Det. Donald Casey — and wasn’t even on the same subway platform where the killing occurred.
He burst into sobs on the witness stand Thursday as Assistant District Attorney Eugene Hurley grilled him on whether his coercion claims were true.
“He [Casey] told you to say you gathered in a circle?” Hurley asked.
Hincapie replied, “Yes.”
Hurley pressed on: “In fact, you knew that it happened because you were there and it was true?”
“No, it wasn’t,” Hincapie said.