Men Who Mistakenly Slashed Wrong Queens Teen Get Jail Time: DA

WHITESTONE, QUEENS -- Two men will each serve nearly two decades behind bars for slashing a 16-year-old exchange student's face in what turned out to be a case of mistaken identity.

Wilson Lai, 26, of Oakland Gardens, and Devon Berkley, 39, of Allentown, Pennsylvania, were sentenced on Wednesday for the brutal 2015 attack, which they executed while the teen was on her way to school in Whitestone.

The two men pleaded guilty last month to slashing the teen's face, but said they didn't mean to target the exchange student. According to the charges, the attack had been planned for someone else - another teen Lai knew who lived in the same house.

Lai and Berkley, who planned the attack together, confused the 16-year-old exchange student for their target when she left the house for school on Dec. 16, 2015, and pounced on her. They slashed her face twice, charges state.

To this day, two long scars along the left side of the girl's face serve as a constant visual reminder of the horrific morning, said Queens District Attorney Richard Brown.

"The victim in this case was not the intended target, but nonetheless she will have to live with the pain of the slashing for the rest of her life - as well as the permanent scars that remain visible on her face," Brown said.

Lai and Berkley will serve 19 years and 18 years in prison respectively for first-degree assault, followed by 5 years' probation.

"The defendants...will be incarcerated for a very long time, as punishment for their crime and to protect society," Brown said.

Lead photo via Shutterstock.