The 24-year-old Brooklynite who fatally stabbed a Greenpoint playwright nearly five years ago was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Wednesday, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Bushwick native Gary Correa chased 42-year-old George Carroll down Monitor Street and stabbed him in the chest with an eight-inch knife after the two got into a verbal argument while Carroll and his wife walked home from a nearby bar on Aug. 18, 2017. Correa fled the scene in an SUV while Carroll bled out on the sidewalk, according to the DA’s office.
Carroll was later pronounced dead at Woodhull Hospital, and cops arrested Correa just over a week later on charges of second-degree murder. He had at least 13 prior arrests, police said at the time.
Correa was found guilty of second-degree manslaughter in January after a jury trial, and was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Jane Tully to 20 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision.
“This was a brutal and unprovoked attack that left an innocent man dead and his wife forever traumatized,” Gonzalez said in a release. “Nothing will bring George Carroll back, but with today’s sentence we have obtained a measure of justice and ensured that this defendant will no longer be a threat to anyone else in our community.”
Carroll, a native Texan best known for writing the play “The Tragedy of Tupac Amaru Shakur or Who Shot Me?,” was less than a block from his home when he was killed. New Yorkers donated more than $24,000 to an online GoFundMe organized by his wife, Christina, to cover funeral expenses.
“My husband’s death is officially a homicide,” Christina wrote on the page in 2017. “George was a victim of a random act of violence and his death was unexpected. George was a proud Texan, playwright and actor who loved deeply and passionately. He moved to NYC, in 2001, to pursue his dreams. He was fiercely loyal, and stood up for what was right.”
On December 1, 2021, Christina posted an update to the page, letting donors and supporters know that the trial was beginning.
“Today, December 1st, would’ve been our 9th wedding anniversary,” she wrote. “It’s the first day of the trial, and so it begins…Thank you for keeping us in your prayers.”
