{"id":204257,"date":"2026-04-21T03:08:45","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204257\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T03:08:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T03:08:45","slug":"queens-man-convicted-in-bludgeoning-death-of-pawn-shop-owner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/204257\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens Man Convicted in Bludgeoning Death of Pawn Shop Owner"},"content":{"rendered":"

New York\u2014A 51-year-old man faces a maximum sentence of life in prison after being convicted in the March 2022 beating death<\/a> of 60-year-old Arasb Shoughi, owner of the Global Pawn Shop in the New York City borough of Queens.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A jury returned a guilty verdict against Rodolfo Lopez-Portillo of Hollis, Queens, last week after a day of deliberations, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced.<\/p>\n

According to the charges and testimony at the four-week trial, Lopez-Portillo entered the Global Pawn Shop shortly before 1 p.m. on March 28, 2022, wearing a black face mask, black hood, black gloves, and sunglasses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He sold two watches to Shoughi, who paid him in cash and then entered the customer side of the shop to put the watches in a showcase.<\/p>\n

Lopez-Portillo removed one of his gloves, \u201cdiscreetly\u201d displayed what authorities believe was a metal pipe, then struck Shoughi on the head when his back was turned, the DA\u2019s office said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shoughi fell to the ground and Lopez-Portillo began hitting him repeatedly before going to the back of the pawn shop where he stole coins and jewelry with his ungloved hand.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the DA\u2019s office, Lopez-Portillo began beating Shoughi again until he stopped moving, then he stole a ring and other personal property off Shoughi\u2019s person.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0Related stories will be right here \u2026\u00a0<\/p>\n

A woman who entered the pawn shop saw Lopez-Portillo behind the counter and went outside to call the police. <\/p>\n

Lopez-Portillo then fled the store but not before striking Shoughi on the head three more times, the DA\u2019s office said.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Shoughi was rushed to the hospital after the attack and died there on April 17, three weeks after the robbery. <\/p>\n

He was one of two jewelers killed on the job in 2022, according to the Jewelers\u2019 Security Alliance annual report for 2022.
<\/a>
Lopez-Portillo fled to Baltimore. He was apprehended at a Greyhound bus station there about one month after the murder.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Authorities found his suitcase at a home in Baltimore. It contained coins, watches, and jewelry, and some of the coins were identified as the ones stolen from Shoughi\u2019s pawn shop, the DA\u2019s office said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In addition, the defendant\u2019s fingerprints were a match for those found at the crime scene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lopez-Portillo was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree robbery, and fourth-degree criminal possession of a weapon.<\/p>\n

His sentencing is set for May 11. He faces 25 years to life in prison.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New York\u2014A 51-year-old man faces a maximum sentence of life in prison after being convicted in the March…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204258,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[79120,80788,80790,80787,80789,80792,80791,80793,80785,9,24,63,122,124,123,80786,79123],"class_list":{"0":"post-204257","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-arasb-shoughi","9":"tag-arasb-shoughi-global-pawn-shop","10":"tag-arasb-shoughi-jamaica-queens","11":"tag-arasb-shoughi-pawn-shop-queens","12":"tag-global-pawn-shop-jamaica-queens","13":"tag-how-many-jewelers-killed-on-the-job-in-2022","14":"tag-jewelers-murdered-in-2022","15":"tag-jsa-jewelry-crime-stats-2022","16":"tag-murder-of-queens-jeweler-2022","17":"tag-new-york","18":"tag-new-york-city","19":"tag-nyc","20":"tag-queens","21":"tag-queens-headlines","22":"tag-queens-news","23":"tag-queens-pawn-shop-murder-2022","24":"tag-rodolfo-lopez-portillo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204257","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204257"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204257\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204257"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204257"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204257"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}