The Uptown Chronicle

Chelsea Frazier was the victim of a deadly plot

By Umair Irfan

A photo of Chelsea Frazier from a memorial website.

Gisella Chevettiss yelled at her TV that Sunday afternoon on April 13, 2008. The Mets, playing the Milwaukee Brewers across the river in Flushing, were doing lousy. As usual, she thought. She distracted herself with housework, cleaning and dusting around her second-floor home near the corner of Barrett and Torry Avenues in the Castle Hill section of the Bronx, listening when she wasn’t watching. The windows were wide open and the venetian blinds were all the way up on that cool April day under cloudy skies. The neighborhood, bordering Pugsley Creek Park with its two-story duplexes and townhouses, red brick with white siding, green lawns, and the proverbial white picket fences, was described by more than one NYPD detective as desolate. At least, by New York City standards.

Four gunshots in rapid succession interrupted the tranquility. A former Sea Cadet with a patch in marksmanship, Chevettiss recognized the noises and thought they sounded close. She later testified at Devon Miller’s trial that she looked out her window to see a hunter green SUV parked behind a burgundy red sedan in the middle of the street. The SUV, a Chevrolet Tahoe with Massachusetts plates, took off down the narrow street in reverse, backing into a driveway, before pulling out and speeding off on Olmstead Avenue. Read the full story

Nellie Hocutt lived in the two-story home, right, at 3765 Laconia Avenue in Williamsbridge. Her friend, Lavonne Daniel, lived immediately next door. Photo credit: Josh Moyer

By Josh Moyer

Nellie Hocutt hunched forward as she rolled her shopping cart through the white-tiled aisles of the grocery store. Some butter here. Some frozen chicken cutlets there.

The grandmother wore a maroon cap and matching winter coat, as a light snow fell outside. At 91, she was as independent as ever.

Hocutt would often hop into her black Buick Century and drop off younger neighbors at church on Sundays. She would drive herself to the doctor. She would travel to her car mechanic.

And, on Jan. 9, 2003, she would drive 15 minutes — past tall trees and weathered telephone poles — to Pathmark at Bay Plaza. She would be murdered, brutally, before she put the groceries away. Read the full story

Many voters disillusioned by Paterson

By Umair Irfan

While Andrew Cuomo and Carl Paladino, the leading contenders for governor of New York, trade barbs in the press, make their pitches in advertisements, and exchange words in debates, the incumbent quietly prepares to make his exit. Governor Paterson, having earned just a 35 percent approval rating according to an October poll by Rasmussen, will leave office on Dec. 31 as he entered it – amid controversy and scandal.

David Alexander Paterson, the 55^th governor of New York, was sworn in on March 17, 2008, ascending to the office after his predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, resigned due to a prostitution scandal. Paterson became the first black governor of New York and the second legally blind governor in the U.S. He began his career in office as a state senator from the 29^th district, which at the time included Harlem, The Manhattan Valley, and part of the Upper West Side. Read the full story