A teenager who claimed self-defense in the fatal stabbings of two 16-year-olds at a Yonkers pizzeria has been acquitted of all homicide charges.
On Monday, Sept. 28, jurors in Westchester County Court found Yorky Tineo, 19, not guilty of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Feb. 6, 2025, deaths of Jayron Rivera and Tyler King-Mellanson at Mickey's Pizzeria on Lake Avenue.
Tineo was convicted of a minor felony, tampering with physical evidence, for hiding the illegal switchblade after fleeing the scene, and a misdemeanor, fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Defense lawyers Katie Wasserman and Thomas Montella convinced jurors that Tineo feared for his life when Rivera and five friends entered the pizzeria - with King-Mellanson
and another waiting outside - as he had been stabbed by Rivera months earlier. They argued that he was justified in pulling out a knife and using it before Rivera and his friends could brandish the knives they had in their own pockets.
Although once friends, there was bad blood between Tineo and Rivera long before the pizzeria stabbings.
On June 22, 2024, Rivera and his best friend got into a confrontation with Tineo and two friends at a basketball court. That was followed by a fight a short time later outside a bodega. Tineo got stabbed in the back by Rivera but there were conflicting accounts as to whose knife was used.
Tineo did not cooperate with police. Rivera was sent to live with a relative in Nebraska. His mother said it was not because they feared arrest but were afraid for his safety.
Rivera returned to New York in early February 2025. His friend testified that they and six other friends went looking for Tineo on Lake Avenue - Tineo's turf - the night of Feb. 6. If they found him, he said, they were planning to beat him but not with weapons, even though he and Rivera and at least one other in their group had knives in their pockets.
When they saw Tineo was in the pizzeria, Rivera, his best friend and four others entered. King-Mellanson and another teen waited outside.
In summations, Thursday, Sept. 24, Assistant District Attorney Lana Hochheiser urged jurors to focus on the moment just before the violence started - when Rivera's hands were empty and at his sides and Tineo had his right hand in his pocket where his double-edged switchblade was.
There were no threats exchanged but Rivera could be seen clapping a fist into his other hand.
As Tineo moved from behind his friend, Rivera took a step towards him. Tineo then lunged with his knife, striking Rivera in the chest, before heading for the exit. He testified that he thought King-Mellanson was blocking the door and when he got it open they collided and he stabbed at the teenager so that he could get away. He claimed he thought he only stabbed him once, although Mellanson was stabbed twice, in the stomach and neck.
King-Mellanson, who was recording what happened in the pizzeria and only had a cell phone in his hand, staggered into the street and collapsed. Rivera and two of his friends chased Tineo out of the pizzeria but he soon dropped to the ground and his friends summoned a nearby police officer for help.
He died later that night at Westchester Medical Center.
To find the stabbings were justified, jurors had to agree that Tineo wasn't the aggressor, had no opportunity to retreat and reasonably believed he was threatened with the imminent use of deadly physical force.
Hochheiser argued that there was plenty of time from when Tineo felt threatened by the presence of the group outside for him to leave the area. And his use of a knife before anyone even brandished one made him the aggressor and the stabbings unjustified, she told the jury.
In case jurors rejected the self-defense claim, Wasserman argued that there was insufficient evidence to prove Tineo intended to kill either teen.
But Hochheiser said the force used to stab each victim made Tineo's murderous intent clear - as did the motive she suggested: retribution for getting stabbed months earlier.
The jury deliberated for less than five hours Friday and Monday before reaching their verdict. Wasserman patted his arm as the foreman answered 'not guilty' on each of the four homicide charges, as some of his relatives wept in the gallery. King-Mellanson's mother stormed out of the court after the acquittals.
Tineo faces up to four years in prison on the tampering charge. But he is also awaiting sentencing in November after pleading guilty this year to first-degree possession of dangerous contraband for having a shiv at Woodfield Cottage, the county's secure detention facility, after his arrest in the stabbings.
Assistant District Attorney James Bavero asked Westchester Judge Maurice Dean Williams to keep Tineo at the county jail. Wasserman did not object but said she wanted time to prepare a bail application so that Tineo could be free while awaiting sentencing, which Williams scheduled for Dec. 4.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Verdict reached for teen who fatally stabbed two 16-year-olds in Yonkers
