A New York teenager, who was cut loose by a judge only to allegedly murder a man months later, is out of prison again.
The 17-year-old, Steven Mendez, is accused of shooting Saikou Koma, 21, in the head during a botched gang hit in Fordham Heights in 2021. The Bronx District Attorney’s office said that he was released Tuesday when Supreme Court Justice Naita Semaj dismissed the indictment against him, reported New York Post. Prosecutors were given leave by Semaj to present their case in front of a grand jury. By law, it must happen within 45 days.
Haja Kaira, who is Koma’s distraught mother, said that she broke down in tears while streaming Mendez’s court appearance. She said that when she heard the judge say, "Release him," she had to stand up. The distraught mother could not believe it. An assistant district attorney who had sent her the link to watch the court proceeding had been seeking life in prison for the accused before he was released from jail, she said.
According to Yahoo! his criminal history allegedly includes him slapping his mother and holding her at gunpoint. Sources said that he was allegedly angry after his mother refused to give him money, so he slapped her with an open hand. He then pointed a gun at her.
Sources told New York Daily News that the teen's mother, Delfina Acevedo, once warned police that he allegedly is short-tempered and out of control. The mother allegedly warned officers when they showed up at her house in March 2019 in response to a domestic violence call.
Sources said that Mendez's guilty plea came after he was charged for his role as an accomplice in a July 17, 2020 robbery in the Bronx. The violent crime left the victim with a gunshot wound to leg. Mendez faced charges of first-degree robbery and first-degree assault. He was also slapped with felony gun-possession charges.
Mendez, who was 16 at the time, was prosecuted as a “youthful offender” in that case. He had temporarily been kept in a non-secure facility pending sentencing. Last May, Denis Boyle, who was Bronx Supreme Court Justice at the time, granted him five years probation.
Then on Oct. 24, the teen and others allegedly sought payback for a beatdown of one of their own members then they came upon Koma on Ryer Avenue on Fordham Heights. Sources said that it was likely a case of mistaken identity. Sources said that Mendez was the trigger man who fatally shot Koma, a college student, in the head. In connection with the shooting of Koma, two others were arrested.
