Jury Not Convinced of Murder in Slaying of Cuomo Aide

Prosecutors in Brooklyn spent the past three months in state Supreme Court detailing what happened on the morning in 2015 when a lawyer in Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration was killed in crossfire between rival gangs. Four men on trial, they said, had committed murder: They were collectively responsible for putting a single bullet in Carey Gabay’s head.

But the case prosecutors built for murder was not convincing to jurors, who ended the trial Wednesday with a mixed verdict for the two remaining defendants. The jury found Micah Alleyne, 26, guilty of manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, and Stanley Elianor, 27, guilty of reckless endangerment.

The verdict meant that all of the defendants were acquitted of second-degree murder, the top charge. A third defendant, Kenny Bazile, 33, who claimed he acted in self-defense, was convicted last week of involuntary manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon, while the fourth, Keith Luncheon, 26, was acquitted of all charges Monday.

After the forewoman announced the final verdicts Wednesday in Justice Vincent Del Giudice’s courtroom, Elianor folded his hands, looked over at the jurors, and said, “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

But fresh pain rippled through the rows of Gabay’s relatives who had come to hear the decision. His brother, Aaron McNaughton, stormed out of the courtroom, shouting that the jurors should be ashamed of themselves. The victim’s widow, Trenelle Gabay, left with him.

“This is ridiculous,” McNaughton said. “Where is the justice? My brother was murdered! Where is the justice? It was murder!”

The shooting on Sept. 7, 2015, in Crown Heights was one of several crimes committed that night during J’ouvert, a predawn Caribbean festival that signals the start of Carnival. The violence left Gabay, 43, and Denentro Josiah, 24, dead, and the city two years later moved the festival to the daytime and installed police checkpoints at entries.

Gabay, a son of Jamaican immigrants, became the first deputy general counsel of the state’s economic development agency. His death drew widespread attention. Cuomo gave his eulogy.

McNaughton found his brother after the shooting, lying in a parking lot of the Ebbets Field Apartments with a head wound. He died a week later.

Prosecutors said the defendants were members of rival gangs — Folk Nation and the 8-Trey Crips — who created a “zone of terror” when they opened fire on Bedford Avenue, shortly before the annual J’ouvert procession kicked off. Surveillance video shown at the trial showed revelers fleeing for safety as the gunmen traded fire. A fifth man charged with taking part in the gun battle, Tyshawn Crawford, pleaded guilty to murder and manslaughter and testified against the others at trial.

Outside court, Doug Appel, Elianor’s lawyer, said Crawford’s testimony was the only thing tying his client to the crime. “The jury clearly did not believe Tyshawn Crawford, based on the way he’s lived his life, based on the lies he’s told,” he said. “I think in the end justice prevailed.”

Gabay, he added, “was a pillar of society, somebody I wish I knew. It’s a tragedy all around.”

Alleyne’s lawyer, Louis Rosenthal, said he planned to appeal the conviction but did not elaborate.

The defendants are due back in court Sept. 12 for sentencing.