BRONX MAN ACQUITTED OF MURDER BY ONE JURY, CONVICTED BY ANOTHER JURY OF MAKING THREATENING TELEPHONE CALLS TO EX-GIRLFRIEND WHO TESTIFIED AGAINST HIM

Bronx District Attorney Robert T. Johnson announced today that a 39 year old Bronx man has been convicted of making threatening telephone calls to a witness only days after he was acquitted of murder charges.

William Summons was found guilty on two counts of Aggravated harassment in the 2nd degree, a Class A misdemeanor offense. Criminal Court Judge Robert Torres set sentencing for Thursday, October 16, 2003 in Part JP7. Summons could be incarcerated for two years if the judge imposes consecutive terms of one year on each count.

The target of the threats, made from pay telephones in the Bronx on May 7, 2003 and May 8, 2003, was a former girlfriend who had testified against Summons in a murder case. Summons was acquitted of the homicide, which occurred on May 18, 2002, at the corner of 164th Street and Washington Avenue. The defendant’s former girlfriend said she began to get threats eights days after the acquittal in the murder case. Her testimony was corroborated by telephone company records from AT&T and Verizon.

Assistant District Attorneys Colleen Barry and Eric Hirsch, Deputy Chief of the Rackets Bureau, are prosecuting the case involving the threatening telephone calls.