Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Thursday that the operator of a Sunset Park construction company has been convicted at trial of criminally negligent homicide and tax fraud. A foreperson at the site was convicted of criminal mischief in connection with an excavation wall collapse that killed construction worker, Luis Almonte Sanchez, who was buried under thousands of pounds of debris.
District Attorney Gonzalez said, “today’s verdict should send a strong message that when contractors cut corners and put their workers’ safety at risk – they will face serious and criminal repercussions. The death of Luis Almonte Sanchez was a preventable tragedy that would have been avoided if the operator of the construction site followed all safety protocols or heeded warnings about unsafe conditions.”
Following a non-jury trial, Jiaxi “Jimmy” Liu, 49, was convicted of criminally negligent homicide, first-degree offering a false instrument for filing, fraudulent practices in violation of worker’s compensation laws, fourth-degree city criminal tax fraud, and related counts. Wilson Garcia Jr., 48, was convicted of fourth-degree criminal mischief. Liu is facing a maximum sentence of eight to 16 years in prison and Garcia is facing up to one year in jail when they are sentenced on April 26, 2023. Two codefendants previously entered guilty pleas: Jia Rong “Tommy” Liu, 52, of Brooklyn, to petit larceny, and Cindy Chai, 45, of Staten Island, to tax fraud.
According to the evidence, between April and September 2018, construction workers employed by WSC Group Inc., owned by Liu, performed demolition, excavation and foundation work at a construction site at 714 39th Street in Sunset Park. On September 12, 2018, at approximately 2 p.m., a portion of a support of excavation system and an existing masonry wall – adjacent to residential apartment buildings – collapsed, trapping Luis Almonte Sanchez, 47, under the debris.
In the days prior to September 12, 2018, Liu was informed of a number of potentially dangerous conditions, including that the rear wall was moving forward and that some support was needed in order to stop the wall’s movement. He was also notified by a resident who lived immediately adjacent to the rear wall that her patio and garage had caved in. But, despite those warnings, Liu refused to direct the workers to install additional bracing and never halted work at the site in order to assess or remedy the conditions.
Instead, he ordered workers to continue working on the underpinning at the rear of the site and in the days immediately preceding the collapse allowed a trucking company to continue to remove truckloads of dirt during a heavy rainstorm, further destabilizing the site and contributing to the fatal collapse.
In addition, WSC defrauded the New York State Insurance Fund by making false statements about who it was employing, and also committed tax fraud by failing to file taxes between 2015 and 2018.
