A Yonkers man who fatally shot the cousin of a man who had previously assaulted him is claiming self-defense.
Linzel Staggers-John, 27, pleaded not guilty to murder and weapon charges Thursday, June 25, in the fatal shooting of Felix Santiago.
It wasn’t the first time Staggers-John entered a plea in the case. He also pleaded not guilty in March when he was initially indicted. But a review of the grand jury transcript by Westchester Judge Maurice Dean Williams raised questions about whether a Yonkers detective’s narration of a video was excessive. Prosecutors this month obtained a new indictment with the same charges – second-degree murder and second- and third-degree criminal possession of a weapon.
Late on Aug. 31, 2025, Staggers-John shot Santiago outside 27 Ludlow Street. He was taken into custody a few blocks away on South Broadway within 15 minutes of the shooting after the Yonkers AWARE crime-control center spotted him on surveillance cameras and alerted responding officers. He still had the Taurus G2C 9mm pistol and 30-round magazine with him.
According to court records citing police body-worn camera footage and video of detectives’ interviews with Staggers-John, he acknowledged carrying the gun for protection even though he wasn’t licensed to have one. He said he walked past Santiago, who he knew was a cousin of a man who had assaulted him, and that he believed Santiago was coming after him with a weapon. He cited an order of protection barring the cousin from having any contact with him and believed that included the cousin’s family.
“Whatever I had going on with his cousin, we had nothing between me and (Santiago),” Staggers-John was quoted saying in a police holding cell. “He should never have come toward me. He come running up like he was trying to hit me. He was supposed to stay away from me. He had a weapon though, right?”
A knuckle knife was found near Santiago.
After the arraignment, defense lawyer Daniel Liebersohn said Staggers-John suffered a broken jaw in the earlier assault, had been accosted with a knife subsequently and was afraid the family was still out to get him.
The self-defense claim will be harder to prove as a result of the distance between the two men at the time of the shooting and what Staggers-John did after firing the first shot. Instead of running off, he put a new magazine in the gun and fired at least two more shots.
“He’s facing his greatest fear because he’s been terrorized by them so he freaks out and panics,” Liebersohn said after the arraignment.
Staggers-John unsuccessfully asked Williams if he could be appointed a new lawyer, claiming Liebersohn doesn’t come to see him at the county jail but offering the judge no substantive criticism of the lawyer.
Liebersohn said he’s visited Staggers numerous times and is already prepping him to testify if there is a trial. He urged Williams not to replace him, saying it was his #1 case and he was committed to it.
“It’s not a whodunit. It’s not a question of what happened,” Liebersohn said later. “Its about why it happened.”
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Not-guilty plea to murder, weapon charges by Yonkers man
Reporting by Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Jonathan Bandler, Rockland/Westchester Journal News | USA TODAY Network
