Five Queens residents have been indicted in connection with the brutal murder of an East Flatbush laundromat owner who was shot 13 times and then robbed of his $30,000 gold chain last December, Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced Tuesday.
Money Perkins, 37, was ambushed by four assailants, all armed with handguns, inside his laundromat, Money P. Clean/Munir, located on Clarendon Road on Dec. 1, just before 6 p.m. in a murder plot allegedly orchestrated by Perkin’s cousin, Ronnie Butler, who had an ongoing dispute with him.
The DA’s office alleges that Butler plotted the assassination with a friend, who recruited his teenage stepson and two of the stepson’s friends to commit the murder.
Surveillance footage from inside the laundromat shows Perkins struggling with one of the gunmen as he is shot multiple times. One individual, allegedly Butler, is then seen slamming Perkin’s head on the floor multiple times and snatching a $30,000 chain from his neck, according to prosecutors.
“This was a shocking execution of a local businessman, friend, brother, and beloved father, which is all the more tragic as it was allegedly planned by his own cousin,” said Gonzalez. “A thorough investigation by the NYPD and my office unraveled the conspiracy and solved this horrific crime. We will now seek to hold all the defendants accountable.”
Over the course of the investigation, the DA’s office said it found that Butler and Perkins had a long-running dispute dating back to when Perkins opened his laundromat in 2022.
In November 2023, Butler allegedly asked his friend Luis Mercado, 48, to help him kill Perkins, according to the DA’s investigation which relied on digital communications between the defendants, as well as a video from Mercado’s home.
It is then alleged that Mercado recruited his stepson, 16-year-old Zecharyah Slay, who brought along Shaleek Riddick, 19, and Diante Stinson, 20, to help in committing the crime. The three were allegedly offered money for their participation, per the DA’s office.
Butler, Slay, Riddick and Stinson — all armed with guns — allegedly entered the laundromat the evening of Dec. 3, when at least three of them fired at Perkins, striking him 13 times in the head, torso and leg. Prosecutors also allege that Mercado sold the Perkin’s gold chain following the killing.
Butler was arraigned on April 2 before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on an indictment in which he and his fellow defendants were variously charged with first-degree murder, second-degree murder, first-degree robbery, second-degree criminal possession of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child, second-degree conspiracy and fourth-degree conspiracy.
Riddick and Stinson were arraigned on March 27, and ordered to be held without bail before returning to court on May 9.
Slay, who faces a top charge of second-degree murder, was arraigned before Justice Craig Walker on Mar. 13. He was held without bail and ordered to return to court on May 10. Luis Mercado, 48, is set to be arraigned on April 4.
