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SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 31 –  In a Federal courthouse nearly empty amid the Coronavirus pandemic, three murder defendants were brought in handcuffs on March 31 to be presented before U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang.

   The Magistrates Court, for social distancing, has been moved up to a large courtroom on the 24th floor of 500 Pearl Street. There, mid-afternoon, the three defendants sat at a table with four law enforcement personnel near them. Inner City Press was the only other person in the courtroom.  

  First one, then the other two defendants were taken back down stairs to Pre-Trial Services. Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang came in and held a guilty plea proceeding. She told Inner City Press that the murder presentations would be virtual but that since it was already in the courtroom, it could stay. Then she left.

  After nearly an hour, and no response from the US Attorney's Office Press Office about the presentations, Judge Wang returned and the proceeding began by telephone. The three defendants were said to each be in a separate room in Pre-Trial Services, with their lawyers elsewhere on the phone.

  Lead defendant Kevin Taylor had a retained, privately paid counsel. The other two had Criminal Justice Act, publicly paid lawyer, despite citing houses worth $350,000 and one having $200,000 in cash seized from his house that morning.

  Assistant US Attorney Dominic Gentile described the murder of Joshua Rubin over one pound of marijuana. He said the three had gone to Home Depot for packing materials, took Rubin's body to Pennsylvania and lit it on fire. He said phone records from 2011 showed the three men traveling together to Home Depot and to dispose of the body. He said it is a death penalty eligible case, for all three.

  The arguments for bail revolved around Coronavirus in the prisons and why it had taken the government so long to charge the case, and the value of the real estate being offered as security.

  Ultimately after a break Judge Wang rejected bail, saying the government met its burden. She said none of the three were in a special risk category, that the MCC and MDC quantantine all prisoners on their way in.

  Judge Swain to whom the case has been assigned has yet to set a date, so Judge Wang set May 12. Afterward, based on its live coverage, Inner City Press was contacted by a friend of Rubin's from before his death. We hope to have more on this, and on all future SDNY presentments and arraignments, @SDNYLIVE.

 The SDNY US Attorney had announced earlier in the afternoon the "unsealing of an indictment charging KEVIN TAYLOR, GARY ROBLES, and MICHAEL MAZUR with the October 31, 2011, murder of Joshua Rubin in Brooklyn, New York.  All three defendants were arrested today and will be presented this afternoon before United States Magistrate Judge Ona T. Wang.  The case is assigned to United States District Judge Laura Taylor Swain. 

U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said:  'Over eight years ago, Joshua Rubin’s life was taken.  As alleged in the Indictment, these defendants were responsible for that terrible crime.  Now, thanks to the determination of our law enforcement partners and the Special Agents of our Office, the defendants are charged in federal court with murder.'

  As alleged in the Indictment unsealed today in Manhattan federal court:  On October 31, 2011, TAYLOR, ROBLES, and MAZUR robbed Rubin of marijuana in the vicinity of 1021 McDonald Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, and in the course of that robbery Rubin was shot and killed." The case is US v. Taylor, et al., 20-cr-227 (Swain / Wang). Watch this site. 

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