Elmont man found guilty of trying to kill wife in Queens hotel

An Elmont man was convicted by a jury of shooting his wife inside a Queens hotel in 2020, Queens prosecutors said. 

Malcom White, 44, was found guilty of attempted murder Friday in front of Judge Michael Yavinsky, Queens prosecutors said in a news release. He could get up to 25 years to life when he is sentenced on Sept. 28.

During the two-week trial, prosecutors said on March 27, 2020, emergency medical technicians and later police responded to a 911 call at the Hillside Hotel on Queens Boulevard in Jamaica, Queens. Upon their arrival at the hotel, emergency responders tried to find the exact source of the call and eventually were led to White who was sharing a room with his wife, Charisse Ayres, 34.

When EMTs contacted the room, White told them “If you come in here, I’ll blow her head off,” prosecutors said.

When police arrived at the hotel, they found the victim naked in the hotel lobby with a gunshot wound to her arm and several bone fractures to her face, prosecutors said.  After entering White's room, police found blood in various places, prosecutors said.

 Police also found a fired bullet  in a drained bathtub and two cellphones, one under a mattress and another in a toilet, prosecutors said. Police searched the area outside the room after finding a tower of old tires under a broken window.

Police found White naked behind the hotel, and an unloaded revolver near the back of the building, prosecutors said. 

“I am committed to holding accountable those who perpetrate acts of brutal violence against their intimate partners, and this case is especially heinous,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz in a statement. “Following a jury trial, the defendant was convicted of attempting to murder his wife, who was found bleeding from a gunshot wound and serious facial injuries. The conviction cannot undo the trauma but will hopefully provide a sense of peace to the victim knowing her abuser will be sentenced for his criminal actions.”

White’s attorney, Audrey Thomas of Rosedale, Queens, in a phone interview Monday afternoon called the conviction “repugnant.”

"I believe that it should never be this easy to convict anyone of attempted murder," Thomas said. "We're going to file an appeal that we think will be really successful."