Man Beaten For iPhone By E Village Mugger Dies Weeks Later: Cops

EAST VILLAGE, NY — An iPhone robbery outside an East Village housing complex left a man so beaten he died of his injuries three weeks after the attack, police said.

Giovanni Destafano, 27, from Staten Island, was punched by a stranger who approached him from behind outside New York City Housing Authority's Lower East Side II Houses at 632 E. Fifth St., near Avenue C, at 9:50 p.m. Oct 20 before taking his iPhone 7 from his pocket.

Destafano suffered swelling to his head and face and was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he died on Nov. 10, police said.

Cops are investigating the attack as a homicide. No arrests have been made.

The murder was the third in the Ninth Precinct in 2019.

In March, 27-year-old Phibeon Smalls was stabbed to death by a neighbor at his home on East Ninth Street. Christopher Dixon, 26, was arrested and charged for the fatal stabbing. Three months later, a 35-year-old was shot dead on Avenue D and East Third Street.