By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A man who was exonerated by a grand jury in the stabbing deaths of two men on the subway has to move now that he's been released from jail due to death threats, his lawyer said.
Brenddy Garcia, 19, and his family will relocate from their Brownsville public housing apartment because people believed to be part of the Eastern Parkway Gambinos gang have threatened him, said the attorney, Lawrence Fredella.
"They were actively looking for where they lived and tracking who the other Garcia family members are," Fredella said in an e-mail to DNAinfo. "Threats continue quietly circulating back to the Garcia family."
Fredella said the menacing remarks reached Rikers Island, where Garcia had been held on bail from his April 1 arrest until his release on Saturday. A Manhattan grand jury declined to indict Garcia on murder charges on Friday.
Garcia had been charged with the deaths of Ricardo Williams and Darnell Morel, both 24, of Brooklyn.
Investigators learned that Williams and Morel were drinking with their friends in a Midtown bar and tried to steal beer from a Duane Reade before boarding the Brooklyn-bound 2 train where they encountered Garcia and his friends, prosecutors said.
Garcia had to defend himself after someone in the group cracked him in the head with a beer bottle, prompting him to start "swinging wildly in defense of his life," Fredella said Friday.
At a court appearance weeks after the incident, Garcia nearly fainted as his previous attorney described threats made against him by a friend of Morel's in a song that was posted on YouTube, which has since been removed.
Fredella said Garcia and his family cannot seek court-issued orders of protection because they do not know the names of the individuals involved.
Garcia, who has no criminal history, started carrying a knife after he was attacked and nearly killed in two previous attacks. In 2006, Garcia was badly beaten and robbed on a subway, and was stabbed 25 to 30 times during a 2007 incident in Bushwick, his lawyer said.
A spokesperson for the Manhattan DA's office declined to comment.
