STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Staten Island man arrested in the road-rage death of an off-duty firefighter waived his extradition to New York during a court appearance in New Jersey Friday morning, authorities said.
Joseph C. Desmond, 29 -- who was taken into custody at the Circle Motor Lodge in South Amboy, N.J. Monday night -- appeared in Middlesex County Superior Court in New Brunswick at around 9 a.m. and agreed to be sent to New York during the brief proceeding, said a court spokeswoman.
Desmond, who was shackled and wearing an orange jumpsuit, could arrive in New York sometime next week, according to the New York Post.
“I have a feeling that New York is going to want him back as quickly as possible,” the judge said after the hearing, said the article.
The Bulls Head man has not yet been charged, police said Friday. NYPD Chief of Detectives Dermot Shea said Wednesday he expects Desmond will face murder charges in the brutal slaying of firefighter Faizal Coto, 33, last weekend.
Coto was found next to his vehicle near the Exit 4 ramp of the eastbound Belt Parkway at around 4:47 a.m. Sunday. He suffered blunt-force trauma to the head, police said.
Authorities allege Coto’s vehicle and the suspect’s vehicle collided as they merged onto the parkway, before they pulled over near the 14th Avenue/Bay 8th Street exit. Police believe the two men then got into an argument before Coto was hit in the head with a baseball bat.
Shortly after, the suspect fled eastbound in his 2006 Infiniti, police said.
The victim was found unconscious and unresponsive next to his damaged 2008 Ford Mustang. The smoke eater later died at Coney Island Hospital.
Desmond is a reputed Latin Kings gang member who was released from prison seven months ago, after serving for an anti-gay attack in Queens, according to state Department of Corrections records.
In 2012, Desmond allegedly called a man an anti-gay slur before tasering him in the chest on the corner of Gates and Fairview avenues in Queens, said the criminal complaint.
The defendant pleaded guilty to third-degree assault as a hate crime and was sentenced to one year in prison, according to a spokeswoman for the Queens County district attorney’s office.
Desmond previously pleaded guilty to second-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, acknowledging he had at least four ounces of cocaine in his possession, in connection to a drug raid at his borough residence in 2013.
Desmond was sentenced to four years behind bars and five years' post-release supervision for the Staten Island incident. The two cases were consolidated and he was incarcerated in September 2014.
He was up before the parole board twice, and was denied both times, said a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.
The suspect was released in April 2018 on a conditional release.