Manhattan District Attorney Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. announced that 42-year-old Kimond Cyrus has been sentenced to 24 years to life in state prison for the murder of 67-year-old deli clerk Sueng Chul Choi on the Upper East Side. The incident, which took place in March 2023, led to Cyrus entering a guilty plea on October 21 to one count of Murder in the First Degree and two counts of Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the Second Degree, according to a press release from the Manhattan DA’s office.
"Kimond Cyrus was sentenced to a significant state prison term for the horrifying shooting of Sueng Chul Choi as he was working his late-night shift," said District Attorney Bragg in a press release. "Cyrus engaged in escalating turned-deadly gun violence – committing a gunpoint robbery before brazenly ending Mr. Choi’s life." On the evening of the fatal incident, Cyrus was reported to have donned a hazmat suit and used a moped to travel from the Bronx to Manhattan. After a failed robbery attempt at Daona Deli, where he assaulted a customer, Cyrus then fatally shot Choi in the head when he refused to hand over money.
The arrest was made a few days later in the Bronx. Leading up to the murder, Cyrus was reportedly involved in three other separate gunpoint robberies across multiple boroughs. These charges remain pending in the respective jurisdictions. Following the arrest, authorities executed a court-authorized search warrant at Cyrus’s apartment, where they recovered the firearm used in the Manhattan robbery.
Assistant District Attorneys Gregory SanGermano and Kaleigh Shea, under the supervision of Robert Ferrari, former Chief of Trial Bureau 40, and Nicole Blumberg, current Chief of Trial Bureau 40, along with Executive D.A. Lisa DelPizzo, Chief of the Trial Division, handled the prosecution. Contributions to trial preparation were also made by Dale Nelson, Sarah Rogers, and Mollie Somers. The DA's statement acknowledged the work of Detectives Daniel Faughan and John Christmann of the 19th Precinct Detective Squad, Detective Randy Rose of the Manhattan North Homicide Squad, Detective Giselle Batista of the Bronx Robbery Squad, the Homicide and Shooting Enhancement Team, the Manhattan North Homicide Squad, the 19th Precinct Detective Squad, and the 19th Precinct.
