FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, December 9, 2016
Brooklyn Man Sentenced to 24 Years to Life in Prison for Fatal Shooting
Of Williamsburg Man during Attempted Robbery
Defendant and Three Others Followed Victim on His Way Home in the Early Morning;
Shot Him in the Head during Botched Robbery
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that an 18-year-old Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 24 years to life in prison for his part in fatally shooting a man during a botched robbery outside a Williamsburg park.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant was part of a group that targeted an innocent man to rob and then needlessly and tragically took his life. This defendant has now been held accountable for the choices he made that night and we are determined to bring to justice his co-defendants, who are presently awaiting trial.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as Tyheim Smith, 18, of Red Hook, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today to 24 years to life in prison by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Alexander B. Jeong. The defendant was convicted of second-degree murder and first-degree attempted robbery following a jury trial last month.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on April 27, 2015, at approximately 12:45 a.m., the victim, Tyrone Woods, 33, got off a B46 bus at Broadway and Marcy Avenue in Williamsburg and began walking home, carrying a shopping bag. As the victim walked through a pathway near a residential building at 325 Roebling Street, the defendant and three others began to follow him, with the intention of robbing him.
According to the trial testimony, the defendant and the other men followed the victim for several blocks, approaching him outside a park near South 9th Street and Bedford Avenue. They took out a gun, forced the victim to the ground and hit him in the back of the head with the gun. The victim was subsequently shot in the head. The four men fled and dropped the gun, with some of them returning to retrieve it.
Surveillance videos show the defendant and three other men following the victim and fleeing the scene of the crime.
The defendant was arrested on May 14, 2015 in possession of a loaded weapon. His three co-defendants, Tylik Albright, 18; Malik Francis, 19; and Dominic Norris, 19, are presently awaiting trial.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Ernest Chin of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau and Assistant District Attorney Joseph Bianco of the District Attorney’s Trial Bureau Grey Zone, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kenneth Taub, Chief of the Homicide Bureau.
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