Life After The Wendy’s Massacre,
Two Years Later

By Liz Goff

When the doorbell rang at Anita Smith’s Jamaica home on Mother’s Day May 12, Jean Truman Smith opened the door to find Sheldon Ferguson on the other side.

Ferguson, Anita Smith’s long-time boyfriend, handed the woman two-dozen long-stemmed roses.

“I love you, Mrs. Smith”  he said.

As the pair embraced, the tears came, unleashing a lifetime of memories and the heartache of the past two years and Friday, May 24 marks the anniversary of that heartache caused by the crime dubbed by law enforcement as “the most horrendous art of criminal savagery in the history of Queens county.”

Moments before midnight on May 24, 2000 seven employees at a Wendy’s restaurant on Main Street in Flushing were walked into a basement freezer and forced at gunpoint, to lay face-down on the floor. Their two assistants had bound and gagged the victims with duct tape-and with tape over their eyes, each victim stood helplessly as the gunmen slipped a white shopping bag over their heads.

The day after the slayings in Flushing a makeshift memorial was set up at the former Wendy’s site.

Inside the freezer, the two men systematically executed five of the victims with a single shot to the back of their heads. “No witnesses” the pair said as they walked away from the bloodbath with a sack of hamburgers and $2,000 – their “take” in the robbery of the store.

The men weren’t aware that their plan had gone afoul. Two of the victims lived.

Ramon Nazario, Jean Auguste, Jeremy Mele, Ali Ibadat and Anita Smith were gone in an instant. Patrick Castro lived by turning his head inside the bag. He was shot through his cheek, rather than the back of his head. Bloodied and terrified, Castro became the hero of that terrible night. He dialed “911” on a fax phone the murderers had overlooked during their rampage. Castro noticed his friends and co-worker Ja Quoine Johnson “twitching,” blood spilling from inside the plastic bag that covered his head. The gravely injured Castro dragged Johnson up a flight of stairs to the restaurant where police found the pair collapsed near a counter.

Police and paramedics rushed to Johnson and Castro, but Castro refused their help saying “downstairs… they need your help more than I do.”

Ramon Nazario loved to dance. He was a good man, family members recalled. He loved his family, his wife and young son.

The little boy is still unable to grasp the reality of what happened to his dad. He still looks for the man who danced at life’s treasures.

“Sometimes he says his dad just ‘left’” said Benjamin Nazario, brother of the victim. “We’ve taken him to the grave and tried to explain that his daddy is there, resting, and his soul is with God.”

“It’s hard,” Nazario said, “because sometimes he just doesn’t understand.”

Ironically, Jeremy Mele shared something with the man who took his life – both he and Craig Godineaux were “Special Ed” students.

Any trace of similarity ends there. Mele joined the ROTC Program at Neptune H.S. in New Jersey. He loved the uniform, what it stands for and he had hopes of pursuing a military career, family members said.

They expressed disgust over the fact that Godineaux was able to use his Special Ed background to manipulate the system, charging that he was exempt to the death penalty because of his mental status.

Members of the other victims families agreed. “Like hell, he was mentally retarded,” Benjamin Nazario said. “He (Godineaux) used the system because he was afraid to die.”

“The system showed him mercy. Did he show any mercy? No, he just pulled the trigger.”

Jean Auguste, manager of the Wendy’s restaurant fought back.

When Taylor and Godineaux walked the victims into the freezer, Auguste struggled to remove the bag from his head. His mouth taped shut, Auguste had trouble breathing, sources said. He lifted himself off the floor, struggling to break free.

Taylor, angered, punched Auguste in the face and head and then pumped a single shot into the back of his head.

Auguste’s body was later found by detectives in a sitting position, outside the freezer. Taylor would tell detectives after his arrest how he “watched the plastic bag fill with blood” in the seconds after the shooting.

Auguste met with his brother a day before the murders to ask if he would serve as Best Man at his wedding. The Haitian immigrant had expressed his happiness to his brother. “His life was going so well” Auguste’s brother said. “He became a U.S. citizen just one year before, he was about to marry his lefelong sweetheart, and he planned to work hard and open his own company after he completed college studies in business management. He had plans to make it” said Jean-Elson Auguste. “He planned to be the best.”

Patrick Castro and Ja Quione Johnson are recovering, both physically and emotionally, but the scars of that night will never disappear, law enforcement sources said. Both are residing at undisclosed locations and are expected to testify at Taylor’s trial.

Johnson’s recovery is slow and difficult. Doctors worked for hours to remove a bullet from his brain. He awoke paralyzed on one side of his body. Rehabilitation has been tough, sources said, “but he’s a fighter.”

For John Taylor, 37, the accused mastermind of the robbery/massacre, legal maneuvering by defense attorney is almost complete.

Supreme Court Justice Steven Fisher has set a September 10 date for the start of jury selection in the Capital murder case. Court officials said they will soon be mailing notices to more than 1,000 prospective jurors, 18 of whom will be chosen to decide Taylor’s guilt or innocence and his fate.

Prosecutors told the Press that Fisher is withholding a decision on a defense motion regarding the legality of two grand jury panels for several reasons.

Prosecutors said a Brooklyn jury found Darrel Harris guilty recently in the murder of three victims in a Social club in July 1996. The case is the first in New York City where the defendant was sentenced to death since Governor Goerge Pataki reinstated the death penalty in February 1995. The statute requires all death sentences to be revised by an appellate court.

Fisher said he will hold his decision on several defense motions presented in the Wendy’s case until the appeals court rules on the Fraizer case. His decision to do that is “precautionary,” Fisher said. The Brooklyn ruling could affect the Wendy’s case, giving the Capital Defense Team of John Taylor some grounds for appeal, because of the nature of the murders, prosecutors said. “Better safe than surprised,” said a source close to the case.

The appeals panel could also find the 1995 statute unconstitutional, thereby resulting in long delays and prosecutorial motions, the sources said. Such a ruling would have a tremendous impact on the Wendy’s trial, giving defense attorneys grounds to motion for a dismissal of first-degree murder charges faced by Taylor.

Taylor’s accomplice, Craig Godineaux pleaded guilty last fall to the five murders and the attempted murder of Castro and Johnson.

Godineaux was spared a possible death sentence because his attorneys were able to prove he is borderline mentally retarded – one of the stipulations in the 1995 Death Penalty Statute that prevents prosecutors from seeking the death penalty.

Godineaux was sentenced to life in prison without parole. He is expected to bring chilling reinactment of the murders to jurors when he is called to testify against Taylor.

Taylor’s case is the fourth capital murder case in Queens since 1995.

Each of the victim’s families vowed to be in court “each day” until a jury decides his guilt or innocence and his fate.

Benjamin Nazario isn’t shy about expressing his feelings. “I want him dead,” Nazario said after a recent court appearance. In fact, Nazario has expressed his feelings to Taylor. At several court appearances, Nazario stared-down Taylor as he entered and left the courtroom.

“I want you dead,” Nazario shouted to a seemingly unrepentant Taylor.

The Wendy’s fast food chain mailed a card to each victim’s families this weekend. Smith shared the card’s message with the Press “You remain in our thoughts.” In a personal note, Wendy’s East Coast Regional Manager Tom Shapiro wrote, “In remembrance of Anita.”

Nazario’s voice cracks, his composure shaken at the thought of how his brother and the others died.

“What can I say,” he explained. “I loved my brother, and part of him will always be with me.”