1993 club killing suspects found guilty

The 1993 slaying of a club patron has effectively been put to rest.

The nightclub’s owner and a bouncer have been found guilty of the murder after forcing the victim out of the club at gunpoint.

“Justice was delayed in this case, but not denied,” said District Attorney Richard A. Brown.

Rasheen Sweeney, 48, of 107-60 155th Street in Jamaica, and Vishnudatt Nisthalal, 48, of 186-08 Cambridge Road in Jamaica were both convicted of murder in the second degree by a jury in Queens Supreme Court after a six-week trial before Justice Gregory Lasak. Jurors deliberated for three days before reaching a verdict. The defendants face up to 25 years to life in prison when they are sentenced on January 16, 2008.

 

On the night of January 18, 1993, Nisthalal, owner of the Juanchito Bar at 76-07 Roosevelt Avenue, ordered Sweeney, who was a bouncer at the bar, together with another bouncer who has not been apprehended, to remove the victim, Yamile Alberto Puentes, from the bar and kill him. According to testimony, the two bouncers forced Puentes out of the club at gunpoint, took him down the block and shot him once in the head. The second bouncer, who allegedly pulled the trigger, has not been apprehended.

The men were arrested in 2004 after a witness, who had been a disc jockey at the nightclub, spotted Nisthalal at a laundromat and went to the 115th Precinct to report seeing him.