Queens Man Sentenced for Tragic Family Killings, Judge Delivers Harsh Rebuke

A Queens resident found guilty of the vicious killings of his mother and brother in their shared home was handed a 50-years-to-life prison sentence on Monday. The judge, visibly angered, labeled him a “demon seed.”

Roscoe Danielson, 42, faced a courtroom filled with condemnation from his grandmother, uncle, and sister, as he learned the consequences of his actions during the horrific events on July 4, 2023, in East Elmhurst.

Judge Kenneth Holder expressed his revulsion, stating, “This is only the second occasion in this courtroom that I’ve encountered someone I can only describe as a demon seed.”

He elaborated, “It is a term I use for someone who would take the life of the very person who gave them life. This is such an extraordinary situation that if your mother had foreseen the horror your future held, she might have reconsidered your very existence.”

Danielson attacked his 31-year-old brother, Kyle Danielson, stabbing him 50 times and shooting him in the torso before placing his body in a trash bag and dragging it to the sidewalk.

His 59-year-old mother, Cheryl Myrick, was stabbed 38 times and left to decompose inside their home on 104th Street.

The judge’s tongue lashing was just as brutal as the ones given by Danielson’s own relatives, including his maternal grandmother, who took public solace in the possibility that he could die in prison.

“You’re no good, Roscoe,” Catherine Myrick said during the Queens Supreme Court hearing. “You’re going to suffer upstate where you’re going. And you’re going to know what it is night after night after night. You had no business doing what you did to your mother and your brother. They did nothing to you, nothing but give you a place to stay after you come out of the shelter. You need to be ashamed of yourself, young man. You’re gonna die upstate New York.”

Danielson, 42, was convicted last month after a two-week trial of two counts of murder, criminal possession of a weapon, tampering with physical evidence, concealment of a human corpse and endangering the welfare of a child.

Prosecutors said that after his brother’s body was discovered on July 5, 2023, Danielson was taken into custody with a knife and a loaded .9mm pistol tucked inside a baby carriage holding his 3-year-son, whose soiled diapers were so full they were leaking onto the tot’s clothes.

His mother’s decomposing body was found early the next day. Both victim’s had been killed on July 4, investigators determined.

“Roscoe Danielson murdered his mother and brother in one of the grisliest crime scenes we have ever encountered,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said in a statement Monday. “We hope today’s sentence brings the family of Cheryl Myrick and Kyle Danielson a measure of solace as they continue to mourn.”

Family members said they are still hurting.

They described Danielson as a jealous freeloading son and brother who refused to carry his share of the load and rebelled when he was asked to pitch in.

“I want to say this to you, Roscoe: You are a horrible guy,” said the murdered mom’s brother, Andre Myrick, “Man, you killed my sister. You just couldn’t go get you a job. You couldn’t help nobody.  My sister did nothing to you. Look at you, son. Your life is done.”

Andre Myrick said the accused killer moved back into the family home after he was booted from a shelter about two years ago when authorities caught him with a gun. He previously received a dishonorable discharge after joining the Army.

Danielson’s sister, Danielle Danielson, said the Fourth of July was one of her mother’s favorite holidays.

“This was not just a loss. It was a horrible manner that has shattered our lives in ways that can never be repaired,” she said in court. “My mother was a kind, gentle and selfless woman. She never hit us, never drank, never partied. She worked hard and raised us with love and patience. She taught us everything she knew and gave us everything she could, even when she had very little for herself. She did not deserve to die this way.”