Williamsburg, NY – Family of Killed Charedi Landlord Furious That Killer May Go Free

Williamsburg, NY – Relatives of a murdered rabbi say they’re furious the man jailed for the killing could be sprung next month.

Abraham Pollack’s family blasted a judge for her plans to overturn Jabbar Collins’ conviction for the 1994 slaying because evidence was withheld from the defense.

“If somebody killed the judge, would they retry this person?” said Pollack’s brother, Israel. “The dead are not protected by the law.”

The father of nine children from Monsey, NY was shot to death after collecting rent in the Brooklyn building he owned and the building’s superintendent was seriously wounded in what appeared to be a failed robbery attempt.

He had finished his weekly trip to the building at 126 Graham Avenue in Williamsburg to pick up the rent, when Collins with a handgun confronted him in the foyer and demanded the money.

A building resident, who said he saw the shooting, said he and Mr. Pollack had just come down the stairs from the second floor when the gunman stepped from the shadows, said, “Hold-up,” and shot the landlord in the abdomen. Mr. Pollack clutched his stomach and pitched forward onto the floor, said the man, who, like other tenants, refused to give his name out of concern for his safety.

The gunman “turned to look at me,” he said, “then he turned to the landlord and shot him twice.”

About that time, he said, the elevator doors in the foyer opened, and the superintendent stepped out. The gunman fired three shots at him.

The superintendent was hit once in the chest and was taken to the City Hospital Center at Elmhurst, Queens.

One tenant said she was awakened by the shots and ran downstairs to find Mr. Pollack lying on the floor, bleeding. “When I got to him, his eyes were rolling, like he was going,” she said.

Collins took $305 in cash and $447 in money orders from Mr. Pollack, but he dropped it as he fled.

Shlomo Koenig, said at that time, that Mr. Pollack, who grew up in Brooklyn, lived with his wife, Rivka, and their nine children, aged 6 months to 12 years. “He was a very nice man, a devoted father,” he said. “This is very, very hard to take.”

Residents of the five-story brick building described Mr. Pollack as a nice man who talked incessantly about his children and often brought one or two of them on his Sunday morning rounds to collect the rent.

“He treated everyone fairly,” one man said. “If you were late with the rent, he didn’t hassle you.”

Collins has served more than 15 years for the botched robbery and slaying but long has claimed he’s innocent victim of prosecutorial misconduct.

Federal Judge Dora Irizarry said she plans to vacate the conviction and could release Collins on bail after hearing on the prosecutors’ action that starts June 8.

“If he [Collins] is granted freedom, we should all put on bulletproof vests,” said Bernard Katz, the victim’s brother-in-law.

Prosecutors have conceded the defense was never told a key witness against Collins briefly recanted his story, (as was reported here on VIN News).

They denied any wrongdoing, though, and have vowed to retry Collins.

A hearing on possible misconduct by prosecutor Michael Vecchione, now a top official in the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, was supposed to start yesterday.

It was postponed to give the district attorney’s office more time to prepare.

Pollack’s son Abraham, one of his nine children, came to court for a glimpse of the man who allegedly shot his father while he collected rent in Williamsburg building he owned.

“The man I saw in [the courtroom] killed my father,” he said. “It was a closed case.”