Bushwick Teen's Killer Convicted Of Brutal Murder, DA Says

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN -- A Brooklyn man was convicted of murdering a teenaged girl, whom he may have restrained in a self-designed sex chair, then leaving her naked body in a Bushwick alley, prosecutors said.

Kwauhuru Govan, 40, was found guilty Tuesday of strangling 17-year-old Sharabia Thomas, stuffing her body into two laundry bags and leaving her in an alleyway near 130 Palmetto St. in 2004, the Brooklyn District Attorney's office announced.

Govan was arrested in Florida in 2016 after cold case investigators matched his DNA to that found on fingernail clippings from Thomas, prosecutors said.

“Sharabia’s bravery when she fought for her life helped bring her killer to justice," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "He has now been held responsible for this brutal years-old murder.”

Thomas' head showed signs of blunt force trauma and she had ligature marks on her wrists and ankles that corresponded to a sketch, which investigators found in Govan's notebook, of a chair meant to restrain women during sex, said prosecutors.

Govan, who could spend life in prison for Thomas' death, also faces a separate trial for the 2005 killing of 19-year-old Rashawn Brazell, prosecutors said.

Brazell's body was dismembered and left on the tracks of the A train one year after Thomas was killed.

Photo of Sharabia Thomas courtesy of the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office