Foreground: Kristopher Samaroo (Bri Thomas/Facebook). Background: The New York City apartment where Samaroo was reportedly fatally assaulted by his landlord and the landlord’s sibling (LLN NYC).
A 43-year-old landlord in New York and his 39-year-old half-brother have been arrested and charged with killing one of the former’s tenants, allegedly beating the man to death with a baseball bat during a dispute about the tenant’s lack of hot water.
The landlord, Omar Lamoni, and his half-brother, Edwin Nina, were taken into custody over the weekend and charged with one count each of second-degree assault in the brutal death of 30-year-old Kristopher Samaroo. Lamoni was also charged with one count of endangering the welfare of a child while Nina is facing an additional count of criminal possession of a weapon.
Officers with the NYPD at about 6:10 p.m. on Saturday responded to a 911 call about an assault in progress in the 1000 block of Throgs Neck Expressway, News 12 reported. Upon arriving at the scene, first responders said they found an adult male — later identified as Samaroo — suffering from severe bodily trauma. Emergency medical personnel transported the victim to nearby Jacobi Medical Center for treatment. He succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced dead shortly after arriving at the facility.
According to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by the New York Daily News, Nina initiated the physical altercation by striking Samaroo with a closed fist while the victim was holding his 6-month-old daughter. The punch reportedly resulted in “the child almost being struck by the defendant’s closed fist.”
Samaroo was reportedly able to give the baby to his fiancee, Brittney Shears, as Lamoni allegedly joined his half-brother in the attack on Samaroo. Additionally, authorities wrote that at some point during the altercation, Nina used a metal baseball bat to “repeatedly strike” Samaroo’s body.
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Prosecutors said that the assault charges may be upgraded following the results of an autopsy.
“As a result of their conduct, one of the victims sustained serious physical injuries and was declared deceased at a Bronx hospital,” Bronx Assistant District Attorney Patrick Watts said in a statement to the Daily News. “The autopsy results are pending, and the People pending those results may choose to elevate these charges to higher-level felony charges, including homicide charges.”
However, Gary Maclena, a defense attorney for Lamoni and Nina, told the newspaper that Samaroo and his fiancee were the aggressors in the dispute, further claiming that neither of his clients struck him with any kind of weapon.
“The video will clearly show that these two individuals did not strike this individual about his body with any type of weapons,” Maclena told the Daily News. “The video will show that Mr. Lamoni was attacked by the deceased and his wife and that Mr. Nina left the location and the attack continued on Mr. Lamoni.”
Lamoni and Nina appeared in court on Monday where surveillance footage of the incident was played. The Daily News described the footage:
“When the video was played in court, it showed Nina reach in the back of his truck, pull out a baseball bat, run back up the stairs of the building, and swing at Samaroo. The video also showed a continuously escalating series of fights between the landlord, his brother and the couple for more than 12 minutes, ending with Samaroo collapsing on the steps to the building before he made it inside.”
Maclena reportedly told the court that the victim and his fiancee had been harassing his clients, specifically taunting the duo about a third brother who was reportedly murdered while in prison.
“What he does is constantly harass my clients, Mr. Lamoni and Mr. Nina, telling them that he is glad their brother is dead and that he will do the same to them,” Maclena reportedly said. “Matter of fact this is what he stated to Mr. Nina on the day of this incident.”
Maclena further claimed that Samaroo and his fiancee had been evicted in September but “refused to leave.”
Shears also told the station that she and Samaroo had been making “partial payment for rent” because the hot water in the home was consistently cut off.
Following their arrests, Lamoni was given supervised release while Nina posted $10,000 cash bond. As conditions of their release, the brothers are prohibited from having any contact with Shears.
Both men have pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against them.
