A reputed gangbanger was ordered held without bail Sunday in the shooting death of a 15-year-old boy on a Queens subway train — while claiming he was the real victim.
Keyondre Russell’s lawyer said his 18-year-old client was jumped by a group of people and shot in the leg, with the bullet then possibly passing through Russell’s limb and striking Jayjon Burnett, mortally wounding him.
But prosecutors scoffed at the notion, and Russell ended up being remanded at his arraignment on murder charges in the Saturday subway killing of Burnett, who was shot in the chest during an argument on an A train in Far Rockaway.
In court, Russell’s lawyer insisted to Judge Denise Johnson that the 18-year-old wasn’t a killer or a gang member.
“My client is a victim — not only a victim being jumped but of a gunshot,” Legal Aid lawyer Peter St. George Davis told the judge.
“It seems to me that this is a case that is not a murder case,” he said. “I don’t believe that it’s a manslaughter case. I don’t believe that it should have even been charged.”
Russell allegedly told police that he was drunk on the train when he “heard a gunshot.
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“I don’t know what his problem is with me,” he said of Burnett. “I got shot. I heard a gunshot, and I don’t know where it came from.”
Davis said Russell, who dropped out of school after the 10th grade, does not have a record and still lives at home with his mother and has six siblings.
But Assistant District Attorney Christine Occhiogrosso called the slaying “a gang-related incident,” and said Russell was picked out in two lineups and “multiple identification procedures.”
In a statement Sunday, Queens DA Melinda Katz called the killing “just tragic.
“At a bare minimum we in New York City have a right to use our subways and have the ability to get home safely to our homes,” Katz said. “The defendant will be held accountable and has been charged with murder.”
Russell, who wore a tan sweatshirt and jeans, showed no emotion in court.
He is charged with two counts of second-degree murder and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, according to court records.
