Gets Extra Time For Assaulting Guard
A Springfield Gardens teenager has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for the March 2012 shooting death of a 18- year-old youth near the South Jamaica Houses and a concurrent term of two years in prison for assaulting a corrections officer while in custody at the Queens Criminal Courthouse last June, law enforcement sources announced.
Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown identified the defendant as Sean Barnhill, 19, of 224th Street in Springfield Gardens, who had been held in jail without bail since his March 2012 arraignment. Barnhill appeared last Tuesday, Mar. 19, before
Acting Supreme Court Justice Dorothy Chin-Brandt, who sentenced him to a determinate term of 25 years in prison on his first-degree manslaughter guilty plea and a concurrent term of two years in prison and three years’ post-release supervi- sion on his guilty plea to first-degree assault.
Alexander Burgess, a co-defendant in the shooting, previously pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced in December 2012 to 16 years in prison.
“[Barnhill] has proven himself to be a threat to society even behind bars,” Brown said in a statement. “As such, the lengthy prison sentence imposed in this case is more than warranted and punishes the defendant for senselessly shooting an unarmed teenager and injuring an on-duty cor- rection officer.”
In pleading guilty, Barnhill and Burgess both admitted that they were armed with semi-automatic pistols and were on 107th Avenue between 159th Street and 160th Street at approximately 12:30 a.m. on Mar. 2, 2012, when they each fired a shot at 18-year-old Darryl Adams, striking him twice and causing his death.
Barnhill also admitted that, while in custody at the Queens Criminal Courthouse in Kew Gardens on June 13, 2012, he assaulted a corrections officer by punching the officer in the mouth, causing him substantial pain and a laceration to his mouth.
Senior Assistant District Attorney Robert S. Ciesla and Assistant District Attorney Marilyn A. Filingeri, both of the District Attorney’s Homicide Trials Bureau, prosecuted the manslaughter case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys Peter T. Reese, bureau chief, and Peter J. McCormack III and Richard B. Schaeffer, deputy bureau chiefs, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Charles A. Testagrossa and Deputy Executive Assistant District Attorney for Major Crimes Daniel A. Saunders.
Assistant District Attorney Patricia M. Theodorou, a supervisor in the District Attorney’s Career Criminal Major Crimes Bureau, prosecuted the assault case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorneys James W. Evangelou, bureau chief, and Robert J. Hanophy, deputy bureau chief, and under the overall supervision of Senior Executive Assistant District Attorney of the Trial Division, James C. Quinn.
