Jurors convicted two close friends on Wednesday of gunning down a South Jamaica club patron following a dispute on the day after Christmas in 2015.
Jamaica residents Neon Osouna, 38, of Guy R. Brewer Boulevard and Brandon Williams, 36, of 159th Street were found guilty on Aug. 15 of second-degree murder and criminal possession charges. Both men could serve 25 years to life in prison; their sentencing is set for Sept. 26, according to Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown.
Osouna and Williams — who refer to each other as cousins, Brown noted — collaborated to kill Bronx resident Donald Reed, 35, on the morning of Dec. 26, 2015 along Guy R. Brewer Boulevard between 107th and 108th Avenues in South Jamaica.
Prior to the deadly shooting, according to the charges, Reed had attended a party with friends at the Smoke Shop, a club which Osouna owned and where Williams worked as a bouncer. Reed’s friends had left the club at about 6:30 a.m., shortly before he exited the location; the victim managed to catch up with the group at a nearby bodega.
Prosecutors said that Osouna and Williams followed Reed from the club and eventually confronted him near the bodega. A verbal dispute eventually ended with an exchange of gunfire; Reed was shot four times in the neck and torso.
Officers from the 103rd Precinct and EMS units responded to a 911 call about the shooting. Paramedics rushed Reed to Jamaica Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Following an investigation, detectives linked Osouna to the homicide and arrested him on Dec. 30, 2015; Williams wound up in cuffs on Jan. 5, 2016 for his role in the slaying.
“This is yet another example of the senseless gun violence that has plagued our community,” Brown said. “A 35-year-old father was gunned down in the early morning hours in a residential neighborhood. The defendants in this case were tried before a jury of their peers and found guilty. Both men now face a lengthy term of incarceration for this deadly shooting.”
