Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
It was a case without a clear motive. Daniel St. Hubert, a 31-year-old homeless man with a history of mental illness, was found guilty Tuesday of fatally stabbing 6-year-old Prince Joshua “PJ” Avitto and nearly killing the child's friend, 7-year-old Mikayla Capers, in a Brooklyn elevator in June 2014. The children were heading up to P.J.'s apartment to get Icees when St. Hubert followed them into the elevator inside East New York's Boulevard Houses and attacked them with an eight-inch knife. P.J. was found dead in a pool of blood, while Mikayla was barely clinging to life with 16 stab wounds. Mikayla, now 11, took the stand last month, telling the jury that St. Hubert suddenly became violent after they refused his order to “shut up.” “I know that nothing will bring solace to the family of little P.J. and that Mikayla, who bravely took the stand at trial, will carry the scars of that day forever,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. “It is my hope, however, that today’s verdict will still afford them a small measure of closure.”