Gang Member Found Guilty in Crossfire Slaying of New York Mother

NEW YORK — A man who prosecutors say belonged to a Dominican street gang was convicted Monday of ordering a 2016 shooting that mistakenly killed Jessica White, a young mother struck in the heart as she watched her three children run around a playground in a Bronx public housing project.

The man, Stiven Siri-Reynoso, 24, was found guilty of murder, racketeering and narcotics conspiracy charges after an eight-day trial before Judge Colleen McMahon in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

Prosecutors said the Trinitarios, the country’s largest Dominican gang, had tried to attack Siri-Reynoso, a member of the rival Dominicans Don’t Play, on a June night in 2016. Siri-Reynoso had been selling drugs in the John Adams Houses, prosecutors said, causing tensions between the groups.

Prosecutors presented evidence that Siri-Reynoso retaliated by sending a teenager, Wandy Tejada, to shoot at the Trinitarios. Instead, White was killed as she lunged from a playground bench to shield her children from the gunfire. She was 28 years old.

The case fueled complaints that black victims of crime receive unequal treatment in New York City. The reward for information about White’s killing was initially set at $2,500, the bare minimum, and her family said the detectives on the case were stretched thin.

“We recognize that this verdict cannot fill the gaping hole that Jessica’s death left in so many hearts,” Geoffrey S. Berman, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement. “But in the face of such tragedy, we, along with our law enforcement partners, maintain our commitment to ridding our neighborhoods and playgrounds of senseless gang violence.”

A brother of White, Doneil White, had been shot to death in the same housing project in 2012. A high-ranking member of the Bloods gang was convicted in connection with his killing.

In a deal with prosecutors, Tejada pleaded guilty to charges stemming from White’s killing and testified at Siri-Reynoso’s trial.

Siri-Reynoso faces a mandatory minimum of life in prison at his sentencing in October. The indictment against Siri-Reynoso did not make clear how large the Dominicans Don’t Play gang was. Nor did it explain Siri-Reynoso’s precise position in the group, though it did say he gave the order for the attack on the rival gang.

The jury found him guilty of conspiring to commit racketeering and to sell narcotics, murder in aid of racketeering and murder through the use of a firearm.