Man Who Attacked Cabdriver Sentenced to 10 Years for Manslaughter

A man who beat a taxi driver to death in Queens was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in prison, according to the borough’s district attorney. The man, Austin Amos, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in May.

Two years ago, Mr. Amos, 22, took a cab from Manhattan to Far Rockaway, Queens, with four companions. When they arrived, the group got into a dispute with the cab’s driver, Kutin Gyimah, over the fare, according to prosecutors. Mr. Amos and three of the other passengers punched and kicked the driver, prosecutors said. Mr. Gyimah, 52, died from his injuries the same day.

In a statement announcing the sentence, the Queens district attorney, Melinda Katz, said that Mr. Gyimah had been “brutally beaten and left for dead” by Mr. Amos and the other passengers.

Mr. Gyimah picked up the group in a yellow minivan taxi on Aug. 13, 2022. He dropped them off a few blocks away from Rockaway Beach just before 6:30 a.m., but the passengers took off without paying for their ride, prosecutors said. Mr. Gyimah caught up with one of them before the others surrounded him and began beating him.

The assault was captured on security camera footage, which showed one of the attackers — Mr. Amos, according to prosecutors — punching Mr. Gyimah in the head. The footage then showed him falling to the ground and lying motionless on his back. Mr. Gyimah was pronounced dead later that day at a hospital.

One of the other assailants, Nickolas Porter, pleaded guilty to attempted gang assault and was sentenced to two years in prison in February. Two months later, Mr. Porter, 22, was released on parole, according to records from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision.