MINEOLA, N.Y. – Nassau County District Attorney Madeline Singas announced that a jury found a California man guilty of murder for a November 2015 fatal shooting in Valley Stream.
Deon Ewers, 51, was found guilty of Murder in the 2nd Degree (an A-I violent felony) and Criminal Possession of a Weapon in the 2nd Degree (a C violent felony). The defendant is due back in court before Acting Supreme Court Judge Meryl Berkowitz on May 5 and faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
The trial lasted approximately two weeks and the jury deliberated for less than a day.
“This defendant went to his estranged wife’s home, shot her boyfriend five times in a fit of rage and killed the 34-year old man as he laid in bed,” DA Singas said. “Deon Ewers claimed that the killing was in self-defense, but jurors rejected that argument and now Ewers faces life in prison for killing an innocent man.”
DA Singas said that in the early morning of November 6, 2015, the defendant had flown into New York from California. Shortly after his arrival, Ewers visited the home of his estranged wife in Valley Stream at approximately 6:50 a.m. He had stated that the purpose of the visit was to surprise his son and estranged wife. While inside the house, the defendant came upon his estranged wife’s boyfriend, 34-year-old Majid Morris, shot him multiple times, killing him and then fled the scene.
The defendant’s teenage son, who was in the house at the time of the incident, called 911 and the victim was pronounced dead shortly after at 8:04 a.m. at South Franklin Hospital.
The defendant claimed during the trial that the shooting was accidental and in self-defense. Evidence recovered at the scene included five shell casings, bullet fragments in the bed, the victim’s DNA on the defendant’s pants, blood smears on sheets and a pillow with bullet holes.
Ewers was arrested by Nassau County Police Department Homicide Squad detectives on the following day in Oceanside.
Assistant District Attorneys Daryl Levy of DA Singas’ Major Offense Bureau and Lana Schlesinger of DA Singas’ County Court Trial Bureau are prosecuting the case. Ewers is represented by James Koenig, Esq.