Jurors convicted a Woodhaven man on Thursday who allegedly gunned down a Briarwood man in a drive-by shooting in Richmond Hill more than five years ago.
Sherman Manning, 40, of 89th Avenue was found guilty on May 16 of second-degree murder, criminal possession of a weapon and menacing following a four-week trial. It was Manning’s second trial on the charges, according to acting Queens District Attorney John Ryan; the first trial ended in a hung jury last November.
Law enforcement sources said Manning shot Brendan Santiago, 20, of Briarwood on April 19, 2014, as the victim rode his moped near the intersection of 108th Street and 103rd Avenue in Richmond Hill.
According to trial testimony, Manning was behind the wheel of a white pickup truck that pulled up within arm’s reach of Santiago. He then shot Santiago in the left side of his head and sped away, leaving the victim mortally wounded in the middle of the street, prosecutors noted.
Police and EMS units responded to the scene. Paramedics rushed Santiago to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
During the investigation, police obtained security camera footage from near the crime scene which showed the white pickup truck that Manning drove pull up alongside Santiago’s moped.
Prosecutors and the jury also heard testimony from a witness who heard the fatal shot and saw Manning’s truck flee the scene. Manning also incriminated himself during questioning, when he told detectives that he had been in the area driving a white truck at the time of the murder.
“This was another senseless act of violence,” Ryan said on May 17 in announcing Manning’s conviction. “The unsuspecting victim was shot once in the head and left for dead in the streets of a residential neighborhood in Queens. A jury has rendered its verdict, and the defendant now faces a lengthy term of incarceration for his callous actions.”
Manning faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life behind bars at his sentencing, scheduled for June 4.
