A Queens senior citizen who shot dead a man who tried to rob him will spend four years in prison after admitting to toting an unlicensed revolver — as his lawyer ripped the city’s “draconian” gun laws.
Charles Foehner, 67, pleaded guilty to one count of criminal weapons possession Thursday in a deal to end his case more than two years after he fatally shot would-be thief Cody Gonzalez, who charged at him near his Kew Gardens home.
The Queens District Attorney’s Office chose not to prosecute Foehner, a retired doorman, for Gonzalez’s killing after he told cops that he’d defended himself from a mugger who lunged at him late at night holding what looked like a knife — but which turned out to be a pen.
But prosecutors slapped Foehner with a slew of weapons raps for the unlicensed handgun and for an arsenal of illicit handguns, revolvers and rifles inside his home in the quiet neighborhood.
Foehner took the plea deal to avoid a trial, where he faced 25 years in prison on gun charges that are not hard to prove, said his attorney Thomas Kenniff after Thursday’s hearing in Queens Supreme Court.
Kenniff called Foehner a “hero” who was put in an “impossible position” by what he called “draconian” Big Apple gun laws that make it difficult for “law abiding citizens” to obtain permits to carry firearms.
“If this was a state and a city that had its affairs in order, Mr Foehner would be getting a plaque, not a prison sentence,” Kenniff told reporters on the courthouse steps.
Lawmakers in New York City and Albany have “repeatedly frustrated the rights of law abiding Americans, New Yorkers, that possess firearms,” added the attorney, who is best known for successfully defending Marine veteran Daniel Penny from charges of fatally choking a homeless man who threatened subway passengers in May 2023.
“If we respected people’s constitutional right, and provided practical means for citizens to exercise that right, Mr. Foehner would not be in the position he is in today,” Kenniff added.
After his arrest for the 2 a.m. killing in a driveway near his home on 82nd Avenue and Queens Boulevard, Foehner told cops he’d been packing the silver revolver to protect himself from Big Apple crime.
https://nypost.com/2025/11/20/us-news/queens-senior-citizen-who-fatally-shot-would-be-mugger-headed-to-prison-for-four-years/