FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, October 23, 2017
Crown Heights Man Sentenced to 25 Years to Life in Prison for Fatally Shooting a Man During an Ambush in Bedford-Stuyvesant
Defendant Shot Victim Five Times While He Was Starting His Car
Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 29-year-old Brooklyn man has been sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for fatally shooting a man in 2016 during an ambush in Bedford-Stuyvesant.
Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This is another example of senseless gun violence that left a young man dead. This victim was ambushed and executed and the defendant will now spend virtually the rest of his life behind bars.”
The Acting District Attorney identified the defendant as James Faison, 29, of Crown Heights, Brooklyn. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Neil Firetog to 25 years to life in prison. The defendant was convicted of second-degree murder last month following a jury trial.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, on April 19, 2016, at approximately 10:40 p.m., the defendant ambushed the victim who was sitting in a parked car in front of 891 Hancock Street in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The victim, Harold Culler, Jr., 25, of, East New York, Brooklyn, was shot at two times while in the driver’s seat, and after falling out of the car on the passenger’s side the defendant shot him in the back. The final two shots were at close range and to the victim’s face. Culler, who was struck five times, was taken to Woodhull Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The Acting District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, the defendant was caught on surveillance camera entering and exiting 894 Hancock Street before the shooting. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals in Arizona on May 23, 2016, with a fake driver’s license from Ohio.
The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Sara Kurtzberg, of the District Attorney’s Homicide Bureau, and Assistant District Attorney Joseph Mancino, of the District Attorney’s Trial Bureau Blue Zone, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Timothy Gough, Homicide Bureau Chief.
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