By Kathianne Boniello
An East Elmhurst man jailed since 1999 on charges of attempting to rape one of his fellow students in Bayside High School was expected to face new counts Thursday that he had tried to hire someone to kill his victim.
Parrish Jones of East Elmhurst – who is awaiting trial on charges that he helped choke and sodomize a girl at Bayside High School in October 1999 – has been accused of seeking to hire someone while he was in jail to kidnap or kill the girl he allegedly attacked, a source familiar with the case said last week.
Jones was expected to appear in Queens Criminal Court Thursday to face indictment on the latest accusations against him. If convicted on the charges that he conspired to commit murder, he could face a sentence of 25 years to life in jail.
The Queens district attorney''s office had no comment on the new development in the case.
In February Elkech Leon of Queens Village, a second suspect in the attack, pleaded guilty to the crime and was sentenced to 15 years in Jail.
Jonathan Mendoza of Flushing had previously pleaded not guilty in the case and is awaiting a trial along with Jones.
A spokeswoman for Queens DA Richard Brown said Jones and Mendoza, now both 19, were being held on $350,000 bail and would remain in prison until trial unless a plea bargain was arranged in the meantime.
Jones, Leon and Mendoza were arrested just days after the Oct. 26, 1999 sodomy and sexual attack of a 16-year-old girl in the basement of Bayside High School.
The brutal attack – in which the victim was allegedly choked into unconsciousness with Jones''s belt by Leon while both defendants sodomized her – shattered the normally quiet, safe atmosphere of Bayside High School. Mendoza allegedly acted as the lookout during the attack, which took place in a boys bathroom in the basement of the high school, according to authorities.
The victim and her alleged attackers were sophomores at the time of the attack.
Reach reporter Kathianne Boniello by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 146.
