FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 40 Years to Life in Prison For Shooting Death Of 15-Year-Old Playing Basketball in Flatlands Schoolyard
Defendant Also Shot and Injured 13-Year-Old Boy
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson today announced that a 20-year-old man has been sentenced to 40 years to life in prison following his conviction last month for second-degree murder, first-degree assault and second-degree criminal possession of a weapon for the 2011 shootings of a 15-year-old boy and a 13-year-old boy in the schoolyard of Public School 119 in Flatlands, causing the death of the older boy.
District Attorney Thompson said, “This defendant opened fire on a crowded schoolyard, killing an innocent teen whose life was just beginning. It’s a miracle that more people weren’t killed. Today’s sentence holds the defendant accountable for his violent actions.”
The District Attorney identified the defendant as Vincent Adeyeye, 20, of Brooklyn. He was sentenced yesterday to 40 years to life in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Vincent Del Guidice. The judge, who presided over the defendant’s jury trial, sentenced him to 20 years to life on the second-degree murder conviction and a determinate sentence of 20 years on the first-degree assault count, to run consecutive to one another. He also sentenced the defendant to 10 years for the second-degree criminal possession of a weapon count, which he ordered to run concurrent.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on July 16, 2011, at approximately 7 p.m., at Public School 119, which is located at East 39th Street and Avenue K, in Flatlands, the defendant, who was 16-years-old at the time and a member of the Bloods gang, fired numerous shots into a crowded schoolyard and struck two innocent bystanders. The shooting was allegedly in retaliation for a shooting the night before.
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, Dequan Mercurius, 15, who was playing basketball, suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the left side of his torso. A 13-year-old boy, who had just purchased an ice cream from a Mr. Softee truck, was shot once in the buttocks and once in the foot, and survived.
The District Attorney further said that, according to trial testimony, the defendant was arrested in October 2012 after his DNA was matched to a firearm left at the scene of the shooting.
The case was investigated by Detective Patrick Henn of the New York City Police Department’s Brooklyn South Homicide Squad and Detective Daniel Callow, formerly of the NYPD’s 63rd Precinct Detective Squad and presently assigned to the Brooklyn South Nightwatch.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney Janet Gleeson, Deputy Chief of the District Attorney’s School Advocacy Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Yvette Creightney, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Colleen D. Babb, Bureau Chief.
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