One of the teens charged in the deadly stabbing of a 17-year-old boy on a Queens street was out on “supervised release” in a separate gang assault case at the time of the fatal daytime ambush, The Post has learned.
Derek Trejo, 18, was cut loose by Judge Jennifer Tubridy just two months before he and a 17-year-old accomplice allegedly got into the fatal dust-up with victim Josue Argudo, a complete stranger, on Friday afternoon in Woodhaven.
Trejo had been busted as part of a crew of seven brutal perps accused of beating a 34-year-old stranger, pummeling him and hurling a traffic cone at him — before knifing him in the back — on 88th Avenue near Woodhaven Boulevard on July 22, 2025, cops and prosecutors said.
He was busted on Nov. 12 — but didn’t stay behind bars for long. Tubridy granted him supervised release despite the Queens District Attorney’s Office requesting he be held on $40,000 cash bail or $80,000 bond, officials said.
Less than two months after he was released without monetary bail, Trejo and his buddy allegedly got into an argument with Argudo — that ended with the 17-year-old accomplice plunging a knife into the victim’s torso at Jamaica Avenue and 76th Street around 3:45 p.m., cops said.
Trejo was back behind bars Monday as he now faces a second-degree murder charge in the broad-daylight ambush, prosecutors said.
Argudo’s neighbors in Woodhaven were astonished at the judge’s move to release Trejo in November.
“How can she do this? Look in his face! He has no care for life,” Maria Carmen, 27, a mother of three who lives on the same block as the slain teen, said of the judge.
“If [the judge] has to live here, live with him standing outside, she would not let him back out again,” Carmen said.
Another neighbor, who identified himself as Oscar, 19, said that gangbangers “know nothing is going to happen,” even if they are arrested.
“They’re not crazy, they know,” he said. “One of that crew got arrested like 20 times. He’s still out. They know how it works here.”
Argudo had tried to flee from the dispute with the two other teens, but the assailants caught up with their target and roughed him up, authorities said.
The younger ruffian, who hasn’t been publicly identified because he is a minor, then knifed Argudo at the corner of Jamaica Avenue and 76th Street, according to cops and prosecutors.
Neighbors who saw the attack gave Argudo CPR before he was rushed to Jamaica Hospital in critical condition. He could not be saved.
“He was just a nice kid who just wanted to go to school,” said Eddie Gamble, 61, an engineer who has lived in the neighborhood for 46 years, adding that Argudo lived nearby with his aunt and sister.
“You could see if you just looked at him, you just talk to him, he was always just smiling. I mean if you watch the video he didn’t even fight back,” he said, apparently referring to footage of the incident.
He said the suspects are part of a gang that hangs out at a local McDonald’s.
“That’s their turf. Everybody knows that,” Gamble said. “We see this every day. These kids are savages. After they [killed him], they just walked across the street and watched.”
Trejo apparently lived several miles away, on the other side of Queens, according to cops, with his last known address being the Wyndham Garden Long Island City hotel, which the city had operated as a migrant shelter.
Both Trejo and the 17-year-old — who is charged with second-degree murder as an adolescent offender — were ordered held without bail during their arraignments Sunday night.
“As alleged, the teenage perpetrator and co-defendant, Derek Trejo, engaged the 17-year-old victim in an argument on Jamaica Avenue that soon became physical,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement.
“The teenage defendant produced a knife and stabbed Argudo in the torso. Despite the assistance of good Samaritans and first responders, Josue passed away a short time later,” Katz said.
“The defendants were remanded at their arraignments and the investigation into this callous act of violence is ongoing,” Katz said. “We join the family and friends of Josue as they mourn his loss.”
