DA Gonzalez promotes 3 in Homicide Bureau

March 16, 2022 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. Photo: Rob Abruzzese/Brooklyn Daily Eagle, File

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Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez has promoted three assistant district attorneys to leading positions in the Homicide Bureau, according to the New York Law Journal.

Gonzalez announced in a staff memo that he has named Assistant District Attorney Leila Rosini as chief of homicide, and ADAs Howard Jackson and Chow Yun Xie to first deputy chief and deputy chief, respectively, of the bureau, the Law Journal reported.

Rosini succeeds Timothy Gough, who led the bureau for five years. Gough has recently been appointed as head of a homicide bureau in the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, according to suffolkcountyny.gov.

One of Rosini’s best-known cases was her successful 2018 prosecution of Kwauhuru Govan, who was convicted of a cold-case murder based on DNA evidence found under the victim’s fingernails, the Law Journal said.

Then-ADA Howard Jackson in 2018, after he was honored by the NYC Bar Association. Eagle file photo by Rob Abruzzese

Jackson, who has been with Brooklyn’s Homicide Bureau for 15 years, in 2019 successfully prosecuted Kendall Felix and Erskine Felix for the kidnapping and slaying of Brooklyn landlord Menachem Stark, a leader of the ultra-Orthodox community. In addition, in 2018, Jackson was given the Thomas E. Dewey medal by the City Bar Association, the Eagle reported at the time.

The three are being named to new positions amid a recent wave of gun violence in the city, although the numbers for homicides and shootings in Brooklyn are lower than for the rest of the city.

“We have made great progress, with gun violence down significantly in 2021 and continuing this year, but as we grapple with the challenges of new laws and pandemic-related backlogs, the skill and commitment of our management team has never been more critical,” the Law Journal quoted Gonzalez as saying.