Bronx auto body shop owner who may have been witness in drug case found dead in car trunk

(MARCUS SANTOS/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
BY
JOHN MARZULLI
RYAN SIT
GRAHAM RAYMAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Updated: Thursday, September 22, 2016, 1:34 AM
A Bronx auto body shop owner was abducted Tuesday and killed by two masked men — two months after federal court records suggested he was a cooperating witness in a drug case, sources said Wednesday.

Robert Bishun, 36, of Spring Valley, Rockland County, was discovered in the back of his BMW with a zip tie wrapped around his neck, officials said.

The luxury car was left parked on Broadway near the tony Horace Mann School in Fieldston about 11:15 p.m. Tuesday.

About two hours earlier, a pair of men wearing bandannas, stocking caps and gloves stormed into Bishun’s auto body shop, Mobile Creations on Stillwell Ave. in Morris Park, and announced a robbery, cops said.

They bound Bishun’s cousin and his cousin’s girlfriend and forced them into the trunks of cars in the shop before fleeing with Bishun. The pair managed to free themselves and call police, who found the mechanic’s car — and Bishun’s body — 5 miles away.

A source close to the case said the slaying, which was initially believed to be a robbery, may be related to Bishun’s expected testimony as a government witness in an upcoming drug trial in Manhattan Federal Court.

Bishon was arrested following a 2012 raid at his shop, where authorities found 1.5 kilos of cocaine and 250 grams of heroin hidden in a car, officials said. Investigators also seized $40,000 in cash stashed in a Mercedes-Benz registered to Bishun, a .40-caliber handgun, loose ammunition, $30,000 cash from the shop’s office and pay-and-owe sheets detailing millions of dollars in narcotics transactions.

Detectives were tipped off that Bishun had turned his shop into a drug-trafficking hub after a dealer busted in Suffolk County gave up Mobile Creations as his connection, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Bishun, who’d already done a stint in prison, pleaded guilty to the charges in 2014 but hadn’t been sentenced. In July, his name popped up in a court document suggesting he was a cooperating witness. It was posted on Bishun’s criminal case docket by Judge Dennis Hurley on July 22 and titled “Courts standing order regarding procedures to protect cooperation.”

The defense bar and federal prosecutors have expressed concern in recent months about Hurley posting orders referring to cooperation agreements and the potential consequences of the wording.

In response to the pushback, Hurley stayed the order, but it still appears on Bishun’s docket sheet.

“We hope (the document) has nothing to do with it,” the source said.

Bishun’s lawyer, Fred Sosinsky, declined comment.

The auto shop owner’s girlfriend had no idea he may have been cooperating with authorities. “I doubt it very much, but I don’t know. We don’t know,” said the woman, who did not want to be named.

Family members said the father of four was a fixture at the Faith Assembly of God in Spring Valley every Saturday. He even planned to have dinner with the pastor next week to talk about how to get more involved with the church.

“He was a changed man,” Bishun’s uncle David, 55, said. “He was very generous.... He loved his family dearly.”