Two Hollis men were sentenced to 23 years to life in prison in Queens Supreme Court on Wednesday for murdering a dice game opponent from St. Albans in 2021.
Mark Watson, 28, of 201st Street, and Rodney Dunn, 40, of 109th Avenue, were convicted after a two-week jury trial last month for gunning down 33-year-old Christopher McKnight, who was beating them during a game of craps when he was held up at gunpoint and then shot to death.
According to the charges and trial testimony, on the night of March 9, 2021, Watson and Dunn were rolling dice with McKnight at around 10 p.m. in front of Hollis Wine and Liquors, located at 204-13 Hollis Ave., for about two hours. As McKnight kept winning, video surveillance showed that Dunn pulled out a gun, pointed it at McKnight and ordered him to empty his pockets. McKnight complied, removing cash and other personal items, which fell to the sidewalk. As McKnight began to walk away, Watson grabbed the gun from Dunn and fired multiple times at McKnight.
McKnight was struck on the right side of his rib cage, with the bullet piercing his aorta. EMS rushed McKnight to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short while later. Watson was apprehended within six minutes of the incident wearing the same clothing he wore during the shooting, as depicted on surveillance video. Gunshot primer residue was found on the right wrist of the jacket he was wearing. A loaded .45-caliber gun was found in Watson’s backyard. Ballistics testing matched it to the shell casings found at the murder scene and a shell casing found in Watson’s jacket hood.
“A not-so-friendly game of dice turned into a homicide when the two defendants killed their opponent,” Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz said. “The victim was forced to empty his pockets at gunpoint, turn over his money and then was shot. This is yet another grim reminder of why we must stop senseless gun violence in our neighborhoods.”
Queens Supreme Court Justice Ira H. Margulis sentenced Watson to 23 years to life in prison on each murder charge, to be served concurrently with a sentence of 15 years on each weapons charge and a year and three quarters on the charge of tampering with physical evidence. Dunn was sentenced to 23 years to life in prison on the murder charge, to be served concurrently with a sentence of 23 years on each first-degree robbery charge, 15 years on the second-degree robbery charge and 15 years on each weapons charge.
