A 19-year-old man pleaded guilty to beating a Queens couple in the front yard of their home during a wild car meetup, prosecutors said Friday.
Justin Aguilera, 19, pleaded guilty to gang assault for attacking 50-year-old Blake Ferrer after he yelled at the suspect to get off the front yard of his Malba home. He’s also accused of punching his victim’s wife, Melissa Ferrer, when she ran to help her husband during the Nov. 23 clash, according to Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
“This defendant participated in a chaotic, illegal street takeover in a quiet neighborhood,” said Katz. “When a homeowner asked him to leave, Justin Aguilera ruthlessly pummeled the man on his lawn and then attacked the victim’s wife when she attempted to intervene.”
The car crew, which included at least 10 people, descended on 141st St. near 11th Ave. in Whitestone for a car meetup involving drag racing, tire-screeching donuts and other stunts, according to prosecutors.
Justin Aguilera, 19, is pictured in police custody leaving the NYPD’s 109th Precinct stationhouse in Queens on Dec. 4, 2025. (Kerry Burke / New York Daily News)
Amid the chaos, the revelers also set off fireworks that set a parked and unoccupied Ford Fusion on fire around 12:30 a.m., cops said.
Aguilera joined in a group beatdown of Ferrer, who lives on the block, after the Queens homeowner confronted the troublemakers with a baseball bat, according to court documents.
One of the car enthusiasts threatened to kill the husband, saying, “I’ll pop you. I’ll put you six feet under. You’re not hard.”
Someone in the group punched Ferrer, causing him to fall to the ground, where Aguilera proceeded to punch, kick and stomp on him, prosecutors said.
A Queens couple was assaulted on Nov. 23, 2025 as several men in cars sped through the neighborhood performing donuts on the street, authorities said. (Theodore Parisienne / New York Daily News)
When the victim’s wife attempted to intervene, Aguilera punched her in the mouth, according to prosecutors.
“I was fighting people off to protect my husband and my house,” Ferrer’s wife, Melissa, said after the attack. “Once my husband was down, they knew not to go further or else they would have killed him. They scattered and went in the cars.”
Ferrer suffered multiple fractured ribs, a fracture to his right shoulder and other injuries.
Aguilera was arrested just over three hours later when cops pulled him over for several traffic violations at Union Turnpike and Utopia Parkway, officials said.
He faces up to four-and-a-half years in prison at sentencing, which is scheduled for Sept. 23.
When reached Friday, Melissa Ferrer declined to comment on the plea deal.
With Julian Roberts-Grmela